Índice de gestão econômico-financeira de propriedades rurais: construção e validação de metodologia para aferição

Abstract

Rural management is very complex. It is important to recognize the differences between rural properties and how they are managed. In this context, one of the challenges in management is to understand to what extent the manager's profile, socioeconomic characteristics and economic and financial tools and controls interfere and may explain the different levels of management in the properties. Therefore, the objective of this research is to construct, validate and apply a methodology for gauging the index of economic and financial management of rural properties, and to verify the socioeconomic and productive factors that influence them. The methodological procedures are descriptive, with quantitative data and bibliographic research to support the elaboration of the virtual questionnaire "google forms", sent by e-mail and social networks to farmers between March-July 2019. The internal consistency of the instrument of Collection was validated by Cronbach's alpha (1st test = 0.9730 and 2nd test = 0.9770). To calculate the economic-financial management index (IGEF), 32 (thirty-two) factors were evaluated, distributed in 8 (eight) blocks - GC, GCD, GFC, GO, GI, GP, GE and IEF - later grouped into 4 (four) management areas according to their weights - CCD (40%), FCOI (20%), PE (10%) and IEF (30%) - indexed by the weight of each factor according to the block and determined by means of mathematical equations. The economic and financial management index (IGEF) ranges from 0 (zero) to 1 (one), and was classified as follows: 0-0.2 (incipient); 0.21-0.4 (low); 0.41-0.6 (moderate); 0.61-0.8 (high) and 0.81-1.0 (professional). For statistical analysis we used the parametric analysis of variance - ANOVA, with the aid of SAS® software, and the comparison between the means by Tukey test (sig = 0.05), using the individual and mean IGEF as the response variable. 175 valid answers were obtained. The main contribution of the study was to propose a methodology for measuring the economic and financial management index of rural properties. The construction and validation of the tool was successfully carried out, meeting the proposed objectives, being possible its application independently of the socioeconomic characteristics of the property or the manager's profile, as pointed out by the IGEF calculation. The main results indicate management heterogeneity in rural areas and average IGEF of 0.46 (“moderate”) for the sample. At IGEF by area, on average none of the areas were fully met, even those of the “professional” classification. The main statistically significant influences indicate that those with higher education and those receiving advice have higher IGEF. Age, property size and activity do not influence management level. Most of the sample analyzed (58.8%, n = 103) recognizes the importance of the records and analyzes, but they do not perform it satisfactorily, but claim to need technical assistance or support tools in the GEF area. At all levels, records and decision-making are essentially done by family members. In general, it is observed that the factors of the blocks exert different influences on management levels. The “professional” level presents differences much higher than the others, especially in the IEF block.