Abstract
Credit / debt is an important object for understanding the dynamics of the reaffirmation of capitalism over time. It is crucial for comprehending democracies, as credit becomes a public policy that tackles “financial inclusion”. In Brazil, during the last two decades, the provision of subsidized credit (State Credit) has been implemented and expanded to small farmers whose workforce is family-based (National Program for Strengthening Family Farming - Pronaf). In this article I address the access to, practice of and meanings ascribed to Pronaf by its “beneficiaries”. I will demonstrate that credit / debt is a determinant of the role of small farmers into the so-called coffee game, a field wherein economic and labor decisions can be taken with greater autonomy. It also reveals certain tensions which might be constitutive of a local learning process, with people, artefacts and foreign concepts associated with market capitalism. Different notions of debt emerge as critical debates between the family farmers. Ethnographic research was conducted among 19 family units of Caparaó mineiro coffee farmers (2015-2018).
keywords:
Credit/debt; Pronaf; Family farming; Caparaó; Brazil