(a) The potential of modern family farming
The results indicate a great potential for rural development
based on family farming in some municipalities primarily
located in the Southern part of Brazil. In these cases the high
number of holdings and people involved in the sector matches
many other conditions that can favor the development of
modern and competitive family farms. The aggregated map
of development conditions (Figure 1.9) reveals that this is basically
the case for the South region, where a high proportion of
the municipalities present the necessary development conditions
set together, and specific municipalities mostly across
the South East and Centre West regions. Thus, the continued
investment in the modernization of family farming may
increase the number of farmers with better performance