Cooperativas de crédito e agricultura familiar: a geografia da Cresol Central SC/RS

Abstract

The family farming is responsible for a large part of the food supply to the Brazilian population; however it receives little investment comparing the total number of establishments. The research analyzes how the Cooperatives of Rural Credit with Solidarity Integration (CRESOL) make the interconnection to the access of agricultural financing, besides being a development agent inserted and rooted in the communities where it acts for the continuity of the small agriculture. The research line that guides this work is of modernization, productive systems, public policies and local development. And for the sake of understanding, we study the evolution of rural credit from its genesis in the 1960s to the present, identifying in this process the scarcity, the expansion to the contemplation of family agriculture by the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture (PRONAF), one of the main public policies of this segment. Revisions of literature on credit cooperatives, field transformations, public policies and websites to understand this productive system and access to the resources released by the "crop plans" of each year were carried out. On the other hand, the nature of the work is analytical, but also with some empirical facts of the experiences that are part of this technical - scientific - informational environment. We try to demonstrate how financialization takes place and what the origin of resources is, conceptualizing modernity in the field: "being modern is being within this productive system", reproducing and thus feeding the process already implemented. We have noticed a concentration of CRESOL units in the agricultural micro regions linked to agribusiness integration and partnerships. A large part of the PRONAF available in the area of coverage of CRESOL is operated by it, forming the support for continuity in the field. We will understand the need and the application of financing of small farming, bringing the requirements and mechanisms for the liberation of rural credit in an entity that is identified by proximity, activity and its genesis. By realizing this differential, we can associate the capillarity of the CRESOL system and understand the constitution and performance of the Cooperative as an agent of the territory in the process of continuity of family agriculture, promoting social inclusion and oriented rural credit cooperating with farmers, establishing conditions of permanence in the field.