Agricultura familiar e o biodiesel: o caso do município de Cachoeira do Sul, RS

Abstract

This dissertation examines the public policy of inclusion of family farming in the biodiesel production chain, and its possible impacts on food production by smallholder s farmers of soybeans in the county of Cachoeira do Sul, RS. As a reference was constructed historical overview of economic and agricultural policies in the Republican period, the duality of the agricultural policy that led to the creation of compensatory policies to the family sector in Brazil, including the Programa Nacional de Produção e Uso de Biodiesel (PNPB). It also performed a literature review of biofuel production in major producing countries and the successful experience of the Proálcool Program in the 70s. To develop this studyit present a case study in different locations in the county with predominance of family farms and soybean contracts with owners of the biodiesel industry, so a total of 78 of the 20 family farmers were interviewed. During the investigation it was possible to represent the Brazilian agriculture in a model with its subsystems, using the approach of General Systems Theory (GST). The results scored the main characteristics of the actors related to the classical factors of production, land, labor and capital. It was also the level of satisfaction with free technical assistance received by the biodiesel industry and considering the canola as a technological innovation, the stages of adoption of the producers using the theoretical assumptions of Rogers (1966). Following the one proposed by Guanziroli et al. (2001) the farmers interviewed were classified according to their capitalization levels. In addition, it was quantified the fate of food production, and the average monthly cost spent on food by households, family farmers' perceptions of the benefits offered by the commercialization of soybean production by the biodiesel industry and the social and economic benefits for the county . Finally it was possible to identify the possible impacts on food production in the family farmers. Thus it was possible to identify from respondents' answers, which are the major impacts on food production in the system of household production in two different scenarios, considering the encouragement given to expansion of soybean cultivation by family farmers in the biodiesel industry in the county.