This study intends to measure the scores of technical efficiency of agriculture and cattle raising activity in the 556 Brazilian microregions and to check their determinants. In order to achieve these goals, the data envelopment analysis models (DEA) and the quantile regression were used. The data were obtained from the Agricultural and Cattle raising Census (2006) published by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute - IBGE. The results of the DEA model indicated low technical efficiency in production. So far as the quantile regression model is concerned, one can observe that technical assistance, fertilization, granted credit and family labor constitute relevant factors in accounting for the differences of technical efficiency of Brazilian microregions in all amounts estimated.
technical efficiency; agriculture and cattle raising; Brazilian microregions
