João Pinheiro, Minas Gerais
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João Pinheiro is a municipality in the northwest of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Its population in 2007 was 43,229 inhabitants in a total area of 10,717 km². It is the largest municipality in the state of Minas Gerais.
João Pinheiro belongs to the Paracatu statistical microregion. The elevation of the municipal seat is 765 meters. It became a municipality in 1911. This municipality is located on the important federal highway BR-040, which links Brasília to Belo Horizonte. and 24 km. north of Ponte Fina. [1] The distance to the capital, Belo Horizonte is 380 km.
Neighboring municipalities are: Brasilândia de Minas (N), Buritizeiro (E), Presidente Olegário, São Gonçalo do Abaeté, Varjão de Minas (S), Lagoa Grande and Paracatu (W)
The climate is humid sub-tropical with rains in the summer and drought in the winter. There is little temperature oscillation between the coldest months and the hottest. The mean maximum temperature for January is 29.2ºC while for July it is 27.7ºC. The mean minimum temperature for January is 17.6ºC, while for July it is 13.4ºC. The rainiest months are January or Decembe with between 270mm and 280 mm, while the driest months are June, July, and August with 5.2mm, 10.2mm and 7.2mm respectively. These norms are based on the period 1961 to 1990.[2]
The main economic activities are cattle raising (266,000 head in 2006) and farming, both extensive mechanized and subsistence. There was also production of charcoal from eucalyptus plantations. This charcoal is transported to the industrial region near Belo Horizonte to be used in the steel and iron industry. The GDP was R$125,236,000 (2005). There were 03 banking agencies in 2006. In the rural area there were 1,927 farms (2006) with 578,000 hectares of agricultural land, of which 80,000 hectares were planted, 302,000 were in natural pasture, and 175,000 were in woodland or forest. Around 6,500 people were involved in the agricultural sector. There were 582 tractors, a ratio of one tractor for every 3.4 farms. The main crops in hectares planted were:
- cotton: 600
- rice: 3,380
- sugarcane: 8,100
- beans: 4,070
- manioc: 2,300
- soybeans: 6,500
- corn: 4,500
- coffee: 1,400
- mangoes: 300
In the health sector there were 29 health establishments, of which 21 were public. There was 01 hospital with 59 beds. [3]
The score on the Municipal Human Development Index was 0.748. This ranked João Pinheiro 299 out of 853 municipalities in the state, with Poços de Caldas in first place with 0.841 and Setubinha in last place with 0.568. [4]
João Pinheiro has a private school of higher learning (faculdade in Portuguese) called Faculdade Cidade de João Pinheiro. It has courses in physiotherapy, biomedicine, nursing, humanities, mathematics, education, geography, biology, chemistry, physical education, and business administration. [5]
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