The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) came into force in 1995 in the ambit of the World Trade Organization (WTO). TRIPS obliges WTO country members to adopt higher standards of patent protection and, as a consequence, increases the costs of access to...

Health care, including access to medicines, is granted as a citizen's right by the Brazilian Constitution through a national health system called Unified Health System (SUS). The Pharmaceutical Care Programmes of SUS are, quite often, the only way a large part of the population has to obtain...

Currently, a large amount of the Federal Government's resources is being applied in the implementation of the São Francisco river water transfer project in the Northeast region of Brazil. This project aims to increase water supply for multiple uses in part of the Semi-Arid Northeastern region....

The rise in agricultural prices to alarming levels since 2007 characterized the agrinflation phenomenon. Because of the increase in food prices and the expectation of strong population growth in the coming years, the issue of land grabbing by foreigners in the world has been drawing the...

This study aimed to discuss environmental sustainability issues of the Brazilian agricultural sector, regarding aspects such as the impacts of the sector's growth on the natural environment, current policies and strategies needed to mitigate these impacts. Historically, agricultural policies...

Public irrigation policy in Brazil aims to promote socioeconomic development focusing on economically disadvantaged regions that have agricultural potential. In the Northeast region, fruit exploitation plays an important role in the production. Irrigation projects in this region is an essential...

A considerable part of the population in the area of influence (AI) of the São Francisco Integration Program (PISF) in the states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará survives from agricultural production in the approximately 500 thousand agricultural establishments scattered...

Food production remains one of the main challenges for humankind in this century, and Brazil is one of the main food-producing countries that have yet some land for economically or technically profitable farming expansion. Then, knowing which areas constitute the Brazilian agricultural frontier...