Perspectivas sobre a pecuária de corte praticada em assentamentos da reforma agrária do RS

Abstract

Beef cattle production is still considered an undesirable activity for the development of agrarian reform settlements and family agriculture, despite the fact that contemporary studies and public policies for agriculture in Rio Grande do Sul approach it as a specific issue. Nevertheless, the actual production in those areas shows a different scenario from the one advocated by segments related to agrarian reform. This research starts with the assumption that such production is invisible in and outside the settlements. It was designed as an exploratory study, using semistructured interviewsto collect data in settlements in the city of Santana do Livramento, with qualitative analysis of form and content.The results obtained suggest that people engaged in beef cattle farming in the settlements becomes invisible both as a social group and within the agrarian reform environment.Their labor, products and income are ignored and thus minimized. Moreover, their social relations and strategies of social reproduction are perpetuated. Beef cattle production represents about 10% of the production by agrarian reform settlers on the western border of the state, carried out by locals and people from other regions. Their main motivations are the expertise in the trade, its relatively lower risks, greater adaptability to regional constraints and the need of less personnel. It is implemented as monoactivity, together with milk and rice for commercial purposes or with crops for on-farm consumption; the most practiced raising systems are growing and finishing.