A Influência da capacidade absortiva e do capital social na gestão de propriedades rurais de grãos

Abstract

The growth in world food demand will require more advanced agricultural practices. On the other hand, the youth migration from farms to cities and the aging of the rural population shows the difficulty of continuity and expansion of the rural activity. The succession of farms is highlighted by the complexity of the process and the impact it causes on farm future. In the same way, rural innovation emerges as a possibility for productivity and sustainability growth of farms. The willingness of rural producers to prepare the succession and to adopt innovations may be related to their capacity to absorb external knowledge, transform it and use on farm management, so that the absorptive capacity can be applied to understand the influences on management of the farm. In this line, trust, symbolic value, and social relationships influence that make up social capital can also influence the decision to prepare for succession and adopt innovations. In addition to these theories, socioeconomic factors related to the farmer, his family and property also influence the management of the farm. The objective of this research was to analyze the factors that influence the succession and the adoption of innovative practices at grain production farms. With the application of a closed questions questionnaire, a sample of 82 farmers from Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul was composed, correlating the management and socioeconomic factors with the option of succession and the adoption of innovations. So that the absorptive capacity, the social capital and the hours spent in lectures and trainings were relevant for the definition of a successor, but only the participation in cooperative was relevant to the discussion about family succession. For the adoption of innovations, the absorptive capacity, education, income, farm size, participation in lectures and farm age were influential, but social capital was not relevant. The results pointed out that educational and relationship factors were relevant to management decisions, and influential factors for the rural succession and for the adoption of innovations. The succession literature still lacks theory-based studies, as well as researches related to the adoption of innovations using absorptive capacity and social capital mainly at Brazil. Local communities and organizations, private and public institutions can develop formal learning and space among producers for exchange experiences, so they may influence their farms management, with the development of the succession process and the adoption of rural innovations.