A sucessão familiar no meio rural de Entre-Ijuís/RS

Abstract

The objective of the research is to understand how the decisions of youth rural are constructed, in relation to rural succession. The municipality of Entre-Ijuís, located in the Northwest of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, is characterized by family agriculture, although the last Censo Agropecuário (Agricultural Census) indicates a decrease in the area in relation to the so-called patronal agriculture. The research involved a qualitative analysis, which was initially carried out through bibliographic and documental research, subsequently collecting primary data through semistructured interviews and observation. To obtain the data, thirteen youths, children of family farmers in the municipality, from different locations and with different individual trajectories, were interviewed. Youth is a phase of life full of conflicts, changes and yearnings. In a globalized world, young rural are living even closer to urban young people, which is directly impacting the socialization and personal projects of this group, which starts to glimpse new possibilities. The rural life has few leisure options, greater distance from urban and educational centers, greater social control, and difficulties to enter the job market, leading many young people to leave the countryside, even though most of them prefer a life considered quiet and close to the family provided by the rural areas. The permanence of youth as successors of family property is directly connected with the continuity of the activity conducted by the family by generations, in addition to the maintenance of the family production unit inside the family. The young who pretend to stay, usually, always participated in the rural activity and they express a taste for being farmers, just as their parents encouraged them to continue. In turn, the young people who wish to leave presents a process of socialization with, little participation in rural work activities, besides having had motivated for studies and urban life. As a result of the uncertainties of economic and climatic conditions, which directly impact the agricultural activity, many young people that intend to continue working in the farms look pluriactivity as a strategy for social reproduction, whether through urban or rural work outside the family property. Therefore, the decisions of the rural youth of Entre-Ijuís, to stay in or leave the countryside are constructed through the social experiences and personal aspirations of the different trajectories of this category.