Ações empreendedoras do agricultor familiar frente às inovações do setor agrícola

Abstract

Amid the accelerated growth of the last decades of agribusiness, the family farmer has shown to be resilient in this context and in constant adaptation to remain a competitor in the market. By reinventing himself and exercising a strategic stance, whether by changing production systems or introducing management systems, the family farmer is introducing innovations and ac hieving surprising results. This innovative behavior has attracted the attention of the scientific community, one of the justifications for carrying out this study, which aims to analyze the behavior of family farmers in the face of innovations in the agri cultural sector. The research problem was to ask what are the actions of this behavior of the family farmer in the face of innovations in the agricultural sector? We sought to survey and describe the behavior of the family farmer in the activities carried out on his property. At the same time, we sought to identify innovative behavior with the use of scale and the creation and evaluation of a partial structural model of this scale. And after associating the results, a booklet was proposed to reflect on the behavior of the family farmer that positively influences the adoption of innovation on the property. The study of an applied nature, with a qualitative and quantitative approach, exploratory and based on empirical research, analyzed ten interviews using co ntent analysis and 174 questionnaires using structural equations (Smart PLS) and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) . As a result, it was possible to identify that behaviors related to the search for information, search for support, coopera tion are better developed in family farmers, since it presented the highest intensity for innovative behavior. In this category, infrastructure and skilled labor in rural areas are the most pressing solution factors. Search for new markets, product and pro perty diversification, seizing opportunities, property management and public policy support was the second highest intensity level for innovative behavior, suggesting behaviors that are present but require extra attention from supporters and public bodies to achieve even better results. However, leadership is related to behavior that demands development urgency, as it presented the worst indices of innovative behavior. On the proposed structural model, it is effective and supported by the confirmation of th e hypotheses and, therefore, it can be considered to verify the innovative behavior of family farmers. In this sense and using the aforementioned scale, it was possible to verify that family farmers have a high innovative behavior, but do not reach the max imum level, with producers being more prone to exchanging information to optimize production techniques and overcome infrastructure and labor difficulties. to optimize innovative results such as the insertion of management systems, search for new markets o r product diversification.