Agricultural mechanization in small rural properties in the State of Piau, Brazil

The use of machines in the rural sector increases crop productivity in the field, making it essential to use these technologies for a successful rural enterprise in the market. In this way, this study aimed to analyze the current situation of agricultural mechanization in farms of small producers. The study was conducted in State of Piaui, in Brazil with 30 farmers in the region. This was a quantitative and qualitative research, developed as a questionnaire applied by direct interview. Data were analyzed and represented in graphs using SigmaPlot® 12.0. It was concluded that the use of agricultural machinery for cultivation by small producers in the region studied is almost non-existent due to low purchasing power and also because they are small areas. Thus, the own family comprises most of the hand labor, working with crops in the field primarily by hand, leaving only more difficult services to be performed, such as disking, land clearing and threshing for agricultural machinery. Key words: Mechanization, family farming, production, Brazil.