Agribusiness expansion in the web of Chapada Diamantina, Brazil: contributions for the analysis of the forms of appropriation of new spaces for accumulation

Abstract

In this article I propose some explorations to the analysis of the appropriation of new spaces for capital accumulation developed by Jason Moore on “The capital in the web of life”. For this, I focus on the agribusiness expansion in the Chapada Diamantina, located in the central area of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Firstly, I explore the active role played by agribusiness companies in the making of the Chapada as a differentiated place for agriculture production with a potential that only them could develop. Additionally, based on the years I worked in the region with peasant communities, I analyze the ways the sector displaces rural people, while subordinating small farmers that still exist in the region. For this, I also draw on the Brazilian literature of the agrarian question, aiming to positionize the knowledge produced in the South in order to engage with global debates. Finally, I take Moore’s emphasis on the forms that territorial power contributes to the appropriation dynamics of capital accumulation with the intention to go deeper, with the help of cartography, secondary information and interviews to key informants, in: 1) the exercise of the power of the state through the mechanisms of water governance; 2) the ways through which this power is exercised in several spheres and scales, which also generates tensions within the state itself.

Keywords:
Agribusiness; conflictivity; appropriation; cerrado; agrarian geography.