Anti-poverty policies in Brazil: Reviewing the past ten years

This article reviews the main anti-poverty policies implemented in Brazil from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. These include focused and universal policies - such as education and health care - as well as the rural development, a 'middle ground' policy. Though the inter-municipal consortium, a new institutional arrangement gathering municipalities together, has emerged as a promising policy implementation tool, anti-poverty policies have faced implementation difficulties. Lack of coordination between different programs, even within the same policy area, has impaired their effectiveness. As a consequence, compensatory programs, based on monetary transfers to poor families, which face fewer implementation problems, have become the dominant type of anti-poverty policies in Brazil. Despite these shortcomings, a small Brazilian state, Santa Catarina, was able to reduce by 46 percent the number of individuals living in poverty in just ten years. This is a sign that fighting poverty can, after all, be a feasible endeavor. © 2004 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi).

Grazing time and milk production of crossbred cows in a rotational area of Elephant grass and Tanzania grass

This study was carried out in January of two consecutive years. The objective was to evaluate the grazing time, the grazing rate and the milk production of crossbred cows, managed in two rotational grazing areas, one with elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum. cv. Guaçu) and another one with Tanzania grass (Panicum maximum Jacq. cv. Tanzania), both with natural shade in the rest area. The experiment was divided in two phases, the first with 12 cows that remained day and night in the paddock and were milked twice a day. In the second phase 15 cows were observed and remained 10.43 hours in the paddock during the day, and were kept in a corral during the night. Each cow was observed every 15 minutes. Grass specie had no effect on milk production in the two phases of the experiment. The grazing time was 564 and 474 minutes and the grazing rate was 28.7 and 24.4 minutes/hour for the Elephant grass and Tanzania grass, respectively, in first phase. In the second phase,the grazing time was 461 and 426 minutes and the grazing rate was 42.7 and 39.4 minutes/hour for the Elephant grass and Tanzania grass, respectively. Correlations were observed (P<0.01) between grazing rate and the minimum temperature (-0.68), the maximum temperature (-0.76), the relative humidity (0.44) and the THI (-0.76).

Relación entre el recuento de células somáticas y la producción de leche de búfalas en el estado de São Paulo, Brasil

Mastitis is an inflammatory process in the udder that can affect the quality and quantity of milk produced causing economic losses and risks for health. Considering the somatic cell count (SCCs) as indicator of udder health and the milk yield (MY) of buffaloes from São Paulo State, this study aimed to quantify the related losses in milk due to somatic cells count (SCC). 9404 sources of information from 2198 lactations that occurred between 1997 and 2004 were analysed. There was no relation between MY and the SCCs in the buffaloes at first parity. For the second parity in the months 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 of lactation, there was a negative and significant relationship between SCCs and MY. For parities of three or more there was a significant and negative regression coefficient during every month of lactation betrween MY and SCC. The average losses varied from 0,18 to 2,2 milk liters per unit of SCCs. The results indicated large losses observed in the miltiparous buffaloes and that this category needs received special attention in terms of udder health. The effect of farm, parity and year, must be considered comparison between animals.

Modelación para ajuste de la curva de lactación usando función lineal, no lineal y polinomios segmentados en ganados con alto grado de sangre Brown Swiss

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Uso de polinômios segmentados para o estudo da curva de lactação de búfalos da raça Murrah e seus mestiços em sistema de criação semi-intensivo, no estado de São Paulo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Uso de modelos lineales y no lineales para el estudio de la curva de lactancia en búfalos Murrah y sus cruces en sistemas de cría extensiva en el estado de São Paulo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)