PhD ThesisThis is a study of agricultural marketing and economic develop­ ment in a rapidly industrializing and urbanizing low income region, the Center-South of Brazil. It analyzes the trends in structure and effi- ciency of the marketing systems through wholesale of Brazil's two most important domestically produced staple food goods, rice and beans. The results of this study cast serious doubt on the hypothesis widely acepted among Brazilian economists that agricultural marketing, by increasing in gross margins considerably in the period since 1950, has retarded the growth of food production, and thus has strongly contri­ buted to an apparent real rise in food prices in urban areas in the late 19S0's and early 1960's. Both qualitative and quantitative evi- dence indicates that for rice and beans increases in marketing effi- ciency have been substantial and that farmers today (1965) receive a significantly large proportion of the whole sale price than 15 years earlier. Trends in Marketing have thus contributed to non-inflationary growth by increasing fans price incentives without a corresponding rise in urban food prices.