Estratégias de reprodução social da agricultura familiar: um estudo entre unidades familiares no município de Remígio-PB

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the small farmers social reproductions strategies at Remigio, Paraiba state, Northeast of Brazil, to distinguish which elements hinder or facilitate processes of rural development in that region and the perspectives and dynamics of public policies in this field. For this analysis we used the qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with twenty small farmers and collected secondary data. This sample was selected based on qualitative criteria that characterize the varied forms of production and trade that exist in the region. This study follows the Perspective Oriented to the Actor analytical approaches, because we understand that small farmers despite being submitted to several external influences and constraints imposed by the market, among other aspects, have a life project and assume choices from a cultural repertoire (from the community) and resistance that oriented such strategies articulated by individuals and communities. Thus, we characterize the small farmers in the region, analyzing the intensity of the logic of the family members involved in the work of the small surface that we studied, which seem in risk due to massive migration of family members, forcing 75% of the studied small surfaces to hire other type of labor force. We observed that public policies towards rural development have been generating positive dynamics and stimulating projects to invest in production diversification, despite existing limits of a small number of contemplated surfaces, it brings projections of patrimony growth in the family and stimulate their permanence in the countryside. On the other hand, policies not related to agricultural activities as Bolsa-família and rural retirement pension have shown fundamental importance for countryside maintenance. We observed a strong identity of farmers to diverse symbolic rural elements that make them feel part of that territory, which may imply benefits to region development, if these identity elements which are responsible for keeping that space are not taken for granted, including relations of reciprocity among the families, they will avoid the opposite - the feeling of abandonment and despairing hopelessness in the countryside.