O programa de aquisição de alimentos e a construção social de mercados: Estudo de caso da COPERTERRA

Abstract

The Programme for Purchase of Food from Family Farming (PAA), created in 2003, has achieved year by year a larger number of municipalities, served family farmers bearers of the Declaration of Able for Pronaf and people facing food insecurity and social vulnerability. In the case of farmers, very types fall into this category through state legal frameworks often not responsive to the cultural, social, anthropological and especially the distinctive differences compared with the market. The COPERTERRA participates in this program since 2009 and has increased the volume of resources, expanding its area of action along the protected institutional markets. Initially, it was hoped that from the experience acquired the proponents who participate in the PAA, these cooperatives and associations, would open new spaces together with local/regional markets, achieving greater financial autonomy. The social construction of markets ( CSM ) is a theory that has been worked by many researchers as an alternative to traditional markets with functional features, usually marginal analysis proposed by theorists in the formal economy and the highly standardized dominant agrifood system. The CSM creates and strengthening short circuits of marketings, adds to the intangible and immaterial qualities products, creates new equivalences and aggregates the prices of material goods, such as identification of origin and process. Until then, these elements are not being discussed in the action plan of the PAA. To seek answers and understanding about the possibility of advancements in the field of markets for family farmers by ensuring marketing, expanded participation in local/regional market through the PAA, we performed a case study, using a qualitative/quantitative research, fieldwork and applying semi-structured interviews with open questions, analysis of secondary data collected from the cooperative and Conab, and direct observation. The interviews were transcribed and processed by the content analysis method. As a result of work done, some of the elements found in the CSM theory emerged in the interviews, even though the program does not work and cooperative on this perspective. What we found was an extreme dependence on institutional markets, with the cooperative marketing does not perform even with entities that are benefited by the PAA and carry out purchases to meet the demands of their beneficiaries. Customers outside the institutional markets are not representative of the cooperative in revenue . The institutional arrangement enables the qualification adopted in the implementation of the proposal exempts the cooperative, as the SESC - Mesa Brazil performs pickup and delivery of donated products, however the distance farmers supplying to consumers. Among beneficiaries of PAA consumers interviewed , there is widespread ignorance about the program, objectives and operation, diagnosed from a large share of qualified managers SESC - Mesa Brazil , which makes this is the reference in implementation of the proposal. Similarly, family farmers also unaware of the program. Overall, it is understood that state action could provide advances in the construction of markets, with the participation of actors and public policies that meet assumptions contained in the theory.