Tendências da agricultura orgânica familiar: fatores que influenciam a produção e comercialização

Abstract

The economic, social and environmental importance of family farming have been increasingly recognized by governments and society. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Environment social movements require alternative sustainable production methods from agricultural methods. In this context, organic farming got strengthened by sustainable production and income generating for thousands of countryside families. Despite this positive outlook, organic farming faces with production and marketing problems, lack of specific credit for organic agriculture, little experience and technical information, pests and diseases control problems, and technical assistance difficulties. Thus, this study aims to examine the organic agriculture scene, about influence factors on organics production and marketing products, and seeks to answer questions such as: Which method is the better for small family farmers: conventional or organic? How is the consumer market behavior about organic products? This dissertation's methodology is divided into two articles to answer them. The first one is intended to present the situation and characteristics of Dourados-MS sector, and identify the production method more viable for small producers. A multi-criteria decision model was applied to a organic producers group in the region. The second article is about the organic products consumers behavior, through a survey method in street markets in Dourados-MS and social network sites. This article's objective is to identify the sample perception about the organic agriculture. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, with the SPSS Statistics ® software. The results indicate the organic production method as the most suitable for family farming, considering "production", "market", and "logistics" criteria. The second article presents relevant results as the organic products consumption limitation factors and actions to be implemented for the organic agriculture development.