Tese
Assistência técnica e extensão rural para cooperativas de agricultura familiar: um estudo sobre as bases conceituais e orientações para a ação extensionista
Fecha
2021-12-20Autor
Gregolin, Marcos Roberto Pires
Institución
Resumen
This research contextualizes the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER), mainly understanding that
since the enactment of the Brazilian Law number 12,188 in 2010, the management and commercialization
processes made by family farmers are included in the hall of services offered by this legislation. The “Mais
Gestão” Project was created officially in 2012, based in the National Policy for Technical Assistance and Rural
Extension (PNATER) and was characterized as an innovative project because it wasn’t encompassed the family
farmers directly in the extensions activities, but the economic organizations composed by them, which operates to
the transformation and commercialization of their products. Organized by the Agrarian Development Ministry
(MDA) in Brazil, the project aims to identify and solve weaknesses in technical, managerial, and technological
areas. Also, through the resolutions, increment the competitiveness and promote a sustainable culture in the
benefited organizations. Due the project consonance with PNATER since the begun, both have their principles
linked, emphasizing here the participative methodologies adoption as a standard in its normative documents. To
choose the benefited organizations in the project, it was considered two criteria: to have a significative number of
family farmers as members (what is guarantee by a document called DAP jurídica) and have commercialization
of products to governmental markets (like the programs PAA and PNAE). This Thesis aimed to analyses the
methodological and rational binding of “Mais Gestão” and the specificities of family farmers cooperatives
benefited by the extension activities. The methodology can be categorized as bibliographic and documental, being
the results described in four articles linked with the Thesis specific objectives. The first article was elaborated with
the aim of contextualize the history of cooperativism in Brazil, focusing on a dualism of representation. It was
demonstrated that within the scope of agricultural cooperativism, a dualism was established, being the cooperatives
of family farmers and of solidarity economy an alternative to the traditional cooperatives, which over time had not
represent the food production system, but the commodity ones, created by the agricultural modernization. In the
second and third articles, it was aimed to compare the practices guided by “Mais Gestão” project with the current
methodological premises of ATER. To this, it was presented arguments that shows the efforts supported by the
managers of the public policy to adapt the project to the family farmers reality. However, it was possible to identify
that these efforts have practical and operational elements that aren’t ideals, according to the participative
methodologies, knowledge exchange, dialogical processes, and knowledge construction. Lastly, in the fourth
article, the aim was to compare the practices guided by “Mais Gestão” project now with the typical-ideals
characteristics of rationalities of organizational processes and dynamics. Considering this theme, it was discussed
the problem that, for several authors, family farmer cooperatives (considered as alternatives of resistance, or as
representatives of the “new cooperativism”) are guided by rational actions in relation to values and not only by
actions rationally linked to ends, as is customary in mercantile capitalist environments. From this, it was presented
contributions from national and international literature that address these different rational actions in organizations,
through which it was possible to build a framework with organizational processes and dimensions, in addition to
typical-ideal characteristics of rational actions (instrumental/formal or substantive/collectivist) for each of the
processes or dimensions. Based on the analysis of the methodological guide of the “Mais Gestão” project (through
the focus of rationalities) and understanding that family farmer cooperatives are characterized as organizations
guided by substantive rationality, denying the supremacy of bureaucracy, as well as the preposition of the
economic to the social, it was concluded that there is a gap between the proposed methodology and the
characteristics of family farmer cooperatives, beneficiaries of extension activities.