Agricultura familiar, mercados e políticas públicas: o programa de aquisição de alimentos no município de Varginha (2009 a 2013)

Abstract

This dissertation approaches the relationship established by family-farming with the market and the role of public policies in this process in the light of the Food Acquisition Program (FAP), the core object of this study, which was chosen due to its non-handout policy profile. FAP is a multi faceted program that intends to reinforce the family agriculture by keeping families farming, valorizing their tradition, improving their income, stimulating the interaction between production and local consumption while supplying the social aided region net where the program is managed. To understand better those questions it was conducted a case study about the FPA in the county of Varginha in order to analyze how FPA contributes to both consolidate market relations and inserting family-farming in different commercialization nets in the Microregion of Varginha. Data collection of empirical work occurred in two stages, the first data were obtained through desk research and in the second phase by depth interviews directed to active farmers in PAA Varginha. The preparation of the questions guide which guided the interviews was preceded by the construction of three analytical categories that oriented the articulation of the questions and later validated the final interpretation of the data. The categories created were food and nutrition safety, family-farming economic and social inclusion and Strengthening of local marketing channels. The collected data were analyzed using the method of Categorical Content Analysis proposed by Bardin (2011). To perform the data analysis three subcategories were created for each of the analytical categories previously mentioned. Through the case study it was found that in Varginha, PAA contributes to the strengthening of family-farming and its insertion into the market, considering that it encourages the beneficiary suppliers to enlarge and diversify the family production. Beyond that, the program has contributed to the county to improve the income of the family-farmers who started to invest in the infrastructure of their property and also in food production, by increasing their investment capacity they will be able to look for new regional markets. Note that PAA Varginha presents itself as a new marketing network that keeps other networks like coffee, for instance, diagnosed as the main trading network of farmers involved in the research.