Agricultura familiar na Serra do Centro, Campos Lindos (TO): trajetória histórica e transformações decorrentes da expansão do “agronegócio”

Abstract

In May 2015, the Federal Government of Brazil officially launched in Tocantins the PDAMatopiba, with the objective, among others, to promote regional economic development and improve the standard of living of the local population through public actions which aimed the extension of the local infrastructure, logistic and other means necessary to the expansion of the agricultural activities linked to the agribusiness sector. The present study aims to evaluate the situation that holds similarity with this plan, aiming to comprehend its social and economic aspects and its consequences over regional family farming through research of the relation between these two models of agricultural production at Serra do Centro, in Campos Lindos (TO). The objective was to understand how the local family farmers perceive the changes that have occurred in their historic trajectories and way of life as a result of the arrival of the great enterprises related to the agribusiness sector and their condition facing this new local scenario. Therefore, this study initially revised bibliographic and documental data that could reveal the maximum information about regional economic, physic and social characteristics of the investigated county. The empiric data were obtained through family farmers memories that reside at Serra do Centro since the implementation of the Projeto Agrícola Campos Lindos. The first results revealed the importance of the expansion front of cattle breeding, from northwest of Brazil, in the XIX century to the occupation of the region, which was supported by its physical, social and economic characteristics, originating to a predominantly family farming population. The end of the XX century witnessed the expansion of large soybean farmers in the region until the occupation, with the support of the governmental power, of the Serra do Centro plateau, causing aggravation of the local land issue. The analyses of the field material collected revealed that the arrival of the new front of economic development substantially modified the historical trajectory of these families and how they were distributed in the territory. This study shows how local families conceive the transformational process of their productive system, that the implantation of the Projeto Agrícola Campos Lindos made great part of their activities unfeasible and conditioned the family farmers to the condition of employees in the project farms. Thus, the case of Campos Lindos (TO) can shed light on other experiences that combine great economic interest and actions of governmental power in the region of MATOPIBA.