|Jalapão|140|103|30|0|13,034|11,527|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Northeast|224|187|28|29|42,815|39,898|
|Total|364|290|58|29|||

The baseline and follow-up surveys were conducted in different months of the dry season. However, this would not affect measuring the envisaged impact during the rainy season because: (a) most items in the questionnaire asked about the general conditions of households or infrastructure, which were little affected by month or seasonality; (b) it is expected that accessibility during Tocantins’ long rainy season (almost six months) will affect basic welfare over the entire year, including the dry season; and (c) it is impractical to conduct interview surveys during the rainy season due to access difficulty, especially in the case of the baseline survey before the works.

# **_4.2 Basic Characteristics of the Population_**

The baseline survey provided an overview of household characteristics in the State of Tocantins (Table 3). The average household size is roughly four, and household heads are mostly male. The adult literacy rate is approximately 70 to 80 percent across the regions. A household has, on average, 1 to 1.5 school children. The survey data indicated that some children could not attend school due to illness, but few children were prevented from attending because of transport difficulties.

Every two or three households had at least one person who had been ill in the previous two months. Doctors and nurses appear to be available: they are present five to six days per week at the nearest health centers. Transport does not pose a major constraint for those seeking to reach a health center or hospital. Meanwhile, the infrastructure access of households varies across regions. The Southeast in particular appears to lag behind other regions.

The average household income ranges from R$370 in the Southeast to R$540 in the Northeast. Notably, there is significant variation within each region, ranging from nearly R$0 to R$6,000.

The economic structure does not differ significantly across regions. Although agriculture is the main sector, land distribution is highly skewed. Most households own fewer than 5 ha of land; 90 percent of households own fewer than 20 ha; and only 1 percent of the total number of households uses more than 100 ha of land for agricultural production. About 20 percent of households are engaged in some form of cottage industry, of which half are selling a portion of these products in the market.

People appear to be lightly indebted. About 50 to 60 percent of households borrow money. The average debt varies from household to household but represents between two and six months of household income.

**Table 3: Basic household characteristics by region (baseline survey)**

||Bico do<br>Papagaio So|utheast No|rtheast|Jalapão|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Demographics**|||||
|HH size|4.25|3.98|3.78|<br>3.96|
|HH head = male|0.90|0.81|0.89|<br>0.87|
|Adult literacy|0.77|0.73|0.80|<br>0.74|
|HH head education >|0.09|0.07|0.07|<br>0.14|
|secondary|||||
|**Schooling**|||||
|No. of school children|1.43|1.14|1.06|<br>0.98|
|No. of school boys|0.72|0.64|0.61|<br>0.46|
|No. of school girls|0.70|0.50|0.46|<br>0.52|

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