Introduction The work in agriculture has been associated with higher incidence and mortality for esophageal and stomach cancer compared to work in other occupations. The monitoring the mortality rates should be used as a strategy of health surveillance, providing cancer burden informations in population groups, etiological hypotheses and prevention strategies. Especially in relation to the population of agricultural workers in Brazil, the cancer burden overlaps a context of poverty, lower levels of education, poorer health indicators and restrictions on access to services essential to life.

Objective To estimate the esophageal and stomach cancer mortality and its sociodemographic and temporal patterns among agricultural workers in Brazil, 2000-2013.

Methodology This is a mortality study carried out with the agricultural population from 18 years old or older, using data from the Mortality Information System, Brazilian Health System. Population data are from the economically active and employed population of Brazil, from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Data was analized by sex, group age, race, educational level and geographic region.

Results There were 15,508 esophageous cancer deaths and 24,932 stomach cancer deaths among agricultural workers between 2000 and 2013, corresponding to an age-crude mortality of 7.6/100,000 in 2000 and 8,8/100,000 in 2013 (increase of 15.7% in 13 years) and 13,3/100,000 in 2000 and 13,1/100.000 in 2013 (a decrease of 1,2% in the same period), respectively.

Conclusions The study findings indicates a increase in esophageous cancer and a little decrease in stomach cancer mortality. These indicators are criticised in a country with universal health, and may represent a missed opportunity in health surveillance strategies and occupational health prevention.