Family farming in Nova Friburgo: characterization of social management and promotion of agroecological transition

Abstract

The importance of family farming in Nova Friburgo stems from the importance of producing vegetables and flowers, maintaining forest fragments, social and political organization to maintain achievements and meet desires, such as agroecological strategies from the extreme weather event that occurred in 2011. The objective was to characterize the municipality in terms of territorial, environmental, historical, productive and organizational aspects, as well as to highlight the presence of peasant and business dynamics in local production systems. 47 interviews were carried out with farmers and 4 with key actors in loco, using a semi-structured questionnaire with 57 questions, associated with the application of an innovative participatory tool in which was diagnosed social, productive, environmental aspects and the local dynamics of the agroecological transition were characterized. It emphasizes the importance of strengthening the action of sustainable rural development agents, represented by participatory research, collective rural extension and continued technical assistance in agroecology, bringing groups of organic agriculture and conventional agriculture together. It is concluded from the characterization of the municipality, that the quest for sustainability of family farming in the municipality must be based on a social management process, integrated with the action of agents of sustainable rural development, represented by participatory research, collective rural extension and technical assistance in agroecology and valorization of the historical richness and crops diversity of this production, from family farmers, socially organized in an associative way, aiming at sustainable rural development.

Keywords
participatory tools; social actors; local development