Institutional dimension for sustainable development: the relationship of organic and conventional cotton farming with government

Melo, Paulo Thiago Nunes Bezerra de; Bellen, Hans Michael van

doi:10.1590/1806-9479.2021.224662

Brasil

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ARTICLE • Rev. Econ. Sociol. Rural 60 (1) • 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9479.2021.224662 linkcopy

Institutional dimension for sustainable development: the relationship of organic and conventional cotton farming with government

Dimensão institucional para o desenvolvimento sustentável: as relações da cotonicultura orgânica e da convencional com o governo

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract:

This study aimed to examine the institutional dimension of conventional and organic cotton farming; specifically, the relationships between farms and government organizations. In both, conventional and organic production systems, the farmers are located in varying institutional environments. These environments include a social capital formed by relationships of trust and cognitive affinities. This study focused on the social capital and guidelines for sustainable development. Multiple study cases were used for explanatory purposes. Such cases refer to a conventional cotton farming business and a civil society organization dedicated to organic cotton farming, both located in the state of Piauí. A comparative analysis perspective was adopted based on the elements of content analysis. The results showed that the conventional cotton farming business comprises relationships with governmental organizations that are predominantly oriented towards economic efficiency purposes, while the family-based organic cotton farming association comprises relationships oriented by economic, social, and environmental objectives. The present study extends the discussion on these topics by analyzing the institutional dimension oriented towards the sustainable development premises.

Keywords: sustainable development; social capital; social networks

	Conventional	Organic
ECONOMIC ASSETS	• Concentrated economy;	• Solidarity economy;
(Faria & Pereira, 2012; Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Algodão, 2013; Jalfim et al., 2013; Beltrão et al., 2010; Ferreira-Filho et al., 2009)	• Average productivity of 3,500 kg / ha;	• Average productivity of 1,000 kg / ha;
	• Remuneration per kilo is half of that obtained with organic;	• Remuneration per kilo is double of that obtained in conventional;
	• 37% of total costs are with pesticides;	• Eliminates pesticide costs;
	• Scale gains.	• Differentiation gains.
SOCIOCULTURAL ASSETS	• Weakened autonomy of rural populations;	• Strengthened social autonomy of rural populations;
(Andrada & Sato, 2014; Serva & Andion, 2004; Faria & Pereira, 2012; Alves et al., 2008; Assis & Romeiro, 2002)	• Business labor relations in agro-industrial systems;	• Associative relationships of trust and cooperation between farmers;
	• Appreciation of scientific-technological knowledge of modern agronomy.	• Appreciation of peasant cultural knowledge and agroecology.
ECOLOGICAL ASSETS	• Cerrado biome and its regular rainfall;	• Caatinga biome and its periods of drought;
(Cruz & Maia, 2008; Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento, 2016; Jalfim et al., 2013; Faria & Pereira, 2012)	• Reduces local biodiversity by more than 320,000 hectares;	• Promotes local biodiversity on approximately 32,000 hectares;
	• Does not promote environmental education for sustainability.	• Promotes environmental education and awareness for sustainability.

Authors	Applications on the topic of sustainable development
Spangenberg (2002)	Social entities appear as actors in political processes and systems of rules, which structure political behavior and facilitate social orientations.
Pfahl (2005)	Institutions consist of organizations, governments, systems of rules, mechanisms, social norms, traditions, and guidelines.
Vogelpohl & Aggestam (2012)	Institutions are not only specific formal public and government service organizations, but they also represent patterns of customs and behavior that are important to society. Institutions also are patterns that have emerged after long periods and resist changing.
Lopolito et al. (2011)	Joint action is carried out concretely, which results in a plan and can be used as a practice of social capitalization in new development projects. Joint action is a practice of social capitalization.

Categories	Subcategories	Description
Forms of social capital (Lopolito et al., 2011)	Relational form	Establishment of relationships of trust and cooperation
Forms of social capital (Lopolito et al., 2011)	Cognitive form	Affinity in opinions regarding the problems confronted and the strategies to solve them
Dimensions of sustainability (Spangenberg, 2002)	Economic dimension	Improving the competitiveness of the economy
	Social dimension	Protection of social cohesion
	Environmental dimension	Restriction of natural resources in production processes

Conventional cotton

Organic cotton

The company was founded and is currently managed by a family, who emigrated from Holland to Brazil after the Second World War. Subsequently, the family performed rural work in the interior of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. The family patriarch founded the company after having conducted agricultural business during the latter 1970s in partnership with his brothers in Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The founding entrepreneur started producing cotton in Mato Grosso do Sul in 1993, in an area located in Dourados, but the inability to mitigate the effects of the rainy periods on production caused a search for new areas for the activity. In 2000, he and his son, the current director of the company, started looking for new areas for production. This resulted in the acquisition of an area in the cerrado of Piauí, west of the Serras das Confusões and Capivara. The company was established in 2001, in a region known as the country's new agricultural frontier. In addition to cotton farming, the company produces corn and soybean along with the production and sale of transgenic soybean seeds. The company's operations are technology-intensive for large-scale production.

The organization is composed of remnants and descendants of the Zabelê people, who previously inhabited areas interior to the Serra da Capivara National Park. The Zabelê people lived integrated with the environment and had economic support with the extraction of latex from maniçoba. In that same region, archeologist Niède Guidon found a series of cave paintings and other traces that indicated the presence of one of the most remote peoples in the Americas. Archaeological discoveries and the historical importance of the site resulted in the creation of the Serra da Capivara National Park in 1979 which resulted in the evacuation of the people who inhabited park areas. After years, the remnants and descendants of the Zabelê people were allocated the Fazenda Lagoa settlement by INCRA in 1997. Subsequently, the area became known as Povoado Novo Zabelê and houses approximately 250 families. This settlement is located near the city of São Raimundo Nonato, east of the mountain ranges of the confusions and the capybara. In 2005, the settlement community began to receive support from the Dom Helder Camara Project for cultivation based on the principles of agroecology of various products in consortium with cotton and for the creation of APASPI in 2012.

	Conventional cotton farming	Organic cotton farming
Economic assets	CONAB (High social capital)	INCRA (Low social capital)
	MAPA (High social capital)	EMBRAPA (High social capital)
	DNIT (High social capital)	MAPA (High social capital)
Social assets	ANVISA (Low social capital)	MAPA (High social capital)
	MTE and SEPRT (Low social capital; relationship intermediated by the ABR program)	PDHC (High social capital)

Environmental assets	MMA (Low social capital; relationship intermediated by the ABR program)	MAPA (High social capital)
Environmental assets		PDHC (High social capital)

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Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural (SOBER) SRTVN Av. W/3 norte, quadra 702. Ed. Brasília Rádio Center, Sala 1049., CEP: 70719-900, Website: https://sober.org.br/, Telefone: +55 (16) 3509-7900 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
E-mail: sober@sober.org.br

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[1] Source: Prepared by the authors.