Patos de Minas

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Patos de Minas is a city and municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, located some 400 km from Belo Horizonte on the Paranaíba River. The city has approximately 140,000 inhabitants (123,811 in 2000) while the area of the municipality is 3,198 km². The elevation of the city is 832 meters.

Made the seat of a municipality in 1866, it gained city status in 1892 with the name of Patos, which was lengthened in 1944 to Patos de Minas.

[edit] High standard of living

Patos de Minas occupies a privileged position in the ranking of cities in the state and country in socio-economic development. A study in Veja magazine in 2001 placed Patos in fifth place among five thousand cities with the greatest socio-economic development between 1970 and 1996.

Rare among Brazilian cities of this size, around 99% of all the streets of the city are paved and have public lighting and almost all of the inhabitants (97%) receive treated water.

[edit] Economy

The main sources of income are: the cultivation of beans, corn, manioc, rice, coffee, and oranges, along with phosphate fertilizer processing and livestock raising, dairy products, jerked beef, and hog by-products are processed in the city, which is linked by air and by roads to Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state.

Patos is known nationally for its corn production. The "Princess of the Alto Paranaíba" as it is called, has become the national capital of corn, a fact that has attracted investors from all over the country to set up industries in agro-industry, garments, beverages, and packaging. It is also one of the most important seed producing centers in the country.

Corn is so important in the life of the town that every May Patos puts on a festival, the biggest in the state, called Fenamilho, the Festa Nacional do Milho (National Corn Festival), in which there are rodeos and performances by country and western groups.

The regional airport, built five years ago, can receive medium sized passenger planes from the Brasília to the Fokker F-27. It is located 6.5 km. from the city. There are daily flights to the capital and to Uberaba.

The public university of Patos de Minas has 14 courses, including pharmacy, law, and agronomy. The city is becoming a university center attracting students from all regions of the country. A medical school will soon be built.

Patos is a diocese belonging to the archdiocese of Uberaba.