Instituições no processo de agroindustrialização na agricultura familiar na Região das Missões/RS - Brasil.

Abstract

The development system of the institutions that affect the organizational processes directed at Family Farming Agroindustrialization strategies defined the guiding question of the research. To develop the respective theme, the research aimed to analyze the role of the Institutions, derived from the activities of organizations and social actors, in the promotion and development of Family Agroindustries of the Missões Region, in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Therefore, a descriptive research with a qualitative approach was developed, using the method of study of incorporated multiple cases, based on semi-structured interviews with fifty-one (51) family who carry out agroindustrialization activities as a tool for diversification rural units belonging to Family Farming. The study also gathered information from fourteen (14) Employees of Organizations that have the responsibility to technical support to Family Farming. The interviews were conducted in twelve (12) municipalities of the twenty-five (25) that make up the planning region called Missões COREDE. The theoretical anchorage supported by Neoinstitutionalism is justified by the institutionalist theoretical position, in which economic agents and productive organizations are structured and organized, under pressure, constraints and support from the set of institutions to which they are exposed. The significant heterogeneity of agroindustries in this region forced the research to disaggregate agroindustries by type of territory according to the intensity in the use of the strategy. The region was separated into three different territories according to its degree of agroindustrialization intensity. The results of the research show that decisions on the adoption or maintenance of the agroindustrialization strategy by families of family farmers are mainly subject to coercive and mimetic pressures, not only by the set of formal but also by informal institutions, which basically restrict the actions of families in adopting or maintenance of food manufacturing activities. In the context of rural families, the importance of agroindustrialization surpass the economic issue, extolling social gains, especially regarding the use of female labor. While, the research shows the gains reported by the diversification strategy through familiar farming agroindustries, it can be seen that the institutions generated by this process have not yet been able to generate positive results in terms of family succession, making this a research challenge for future studies.