Várzea da Palma is a municipality ''(

município ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or ...

)'' in north-central

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Its population in 2020 was 39,803 in a total area of 2,220 km². Várzea da Palma is located east of the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...

and is on the Rio das Velhas, a tributary of the São Francisco. It is 37 km. southeast of

Pirapora Pirapora is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in northcentral Minas Gerais in Brazil. The population is 56,640 (2020 est.) in an area of 550 km². The name Pirapora comes from the Tupi language, Tupi words for "fish" + "jump", referring to t ...

, the most important city of the region. A railroad line, now only freight, runs through the city. Neighboring municipalities are

and

Lassance Lassance is a Brazilian municipality located in the north of the state of Minas Gerais. In 2020 the population was 6,503 in a total area of 3,213 km². It became a municipality in 1953.

. The former village of Palma Velha was a cluster of huts that served as a campsite for muleteers coming from different regions, on their way to

Curvelo Curvelo is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is located in the geodesic centre of Minas Gerais, 170 km north of the capital, Belo Horizonte, and connected to the capital by highways MG 135 and BR 040. Its estimated popu ...

. With the building of the railroad Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil, in 1910, the village changed its name to Várzea da Palma. Around the central station settlers began to make their houses attracted by commerce and the movement of the new railroad line. Custódio Fernandes Sampaio, considered the founder of the city, was responsible for donating part of his lands for the building of the first church. In 1948, Várzea da Palma was elevated to the category of district and in 1953 it became a municipality. The main economic activities are cattle raising for meat production, metal industry, and farming. There is an industry manufacturing iron alloys. The GDP for 2005 was R$447,177,000. In 2005 around 2,500 people were working in 120 transformation industries. There were 03 banking agencies.IBGE
/ref> In the rural area there were 596 establishments in 2006. The total area of agricultural land was 128,000 hectares, of which 16,000 ha. were planted in crops, 79,000 ha. were natural pasture, and 30,000 were woodland or forest. There were around 2,000 people in agriculture. 110 of the farms had tractors, a ratio of one tractor for every 5 farms. The size of the cattle herd was 85,000 head. The main permanent crops were bananas, coffee, coconut, citrus and tropical fruits, hearts of palm, and table grapes. The main perennial crops were rice, sugarcane, beans, manioc, corn (2,400 ha.), soybeans, and tomatoes. In the health sector there were 22 health establishments (2005), of which 16 were public and 6 were private. There was 01 private hospital with 48 beds. The score on the Municipal

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

was 0.726. Várzea da Palma was ranked 438 out of 853 municipalities in the state, with

Poços de Caldas Poços de Caldas is a municipality in the south of Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in the microregion of the same name. Its estimated population in 2020 was 168,641 inhabitants. The city is known for its hot springs. History Poços was founded in 1 ...

in first place with 0.841 and

Setubinha Setubinha is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2020 the population was 12,378 in a total area of 536 km². The elevation is 729 metres. It is part of the IBGE statistical microregion of Teófilo ...

in last place with 0.568. Nationally it was ranked 2,500 out of 5,138 municipalities in 2000.Frigoletto
/ref>

References

See also