Emergence of agricultural science courses in Brazil

Abstract

In 1950, the government of Getúlio Vargas exerted a strong influence on the training of agrarian professionals, through the federalization of agricultural higher schools (Law 1.055/50). This action was motivated by the need to supply the international market, whose economy weakened after the Crisis of 1929 and the Second World War. Therefore, qualified professionals were required to generate the modernization of agriculture and increase production. Based on this context, this study surveys the state of knowledge about the creation and evolution of courses in Agricultural Sciences from a national perspective, with a focus on the Amazon. The search for scientific productions covered the period from 1950 to 2021, taking place in five databases, including Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), Agricultural Research Databases (BDPA), Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD); Bibliographic Database, University of São Paulo (Dedalus) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). 2,832 studies were retrieved, among which 42 met the objectives of this research. With this, it was found: the internal and external economy was a determining factor for the expansion of courses (83.34%); Agronomy is one of the most referenced agrarian courses in studies (28%); and the Southeast region is a stronghold of higher education institutions (IES) with more research on the researched topic (28.60%). Thus, even today, the political-economic order is crucial for the growth of agrarian sciences, with regard to the implementation of HEIs, expansion of courses and agricultural research.