Elementos de apego à terra e a perspectiva para sucessão rural em alunos de graduação

Abstract

To keep the management of a rural property within the same family, it is necessary that the children of the current owners wish to become successors. Over the years, the rural exodus of young people migrating to urban areas and not wanting to continue in the countryside has been increasing. Several factors have contributed to fewer young people feeling this desire, seeking another type of profession that does not involve the family’s rural property. Thus, the present work focuses on the elements of attachment to the land and the perspective for farm succession among undergraduate students. This study was conducted to analyze how attachment to the land and the intention to succeed are reflected in undergraduate students who are children of rural landowners, and specifically, to identify the elements of the feeling of attachment to the land in undergraduates from different courses and to verify the relationship between attachment to the land and the desire to become a successor. The applied method was quantitative and explanatory, conducted through the distribution of printed questionnaires in the classrooms of the Agronomy, Administration, Accounting Sciences, and Economics courses at the Federal University of Grande Dourados, reaching 52 responses. With the research results, it was possible to address the study's objectives. Among the respondents, a greater desire to become farm successors was observed among male respondents. Respondents from the Agronomy and Administration courses have a higher percentage of those who possess this desire. The size and number of rural properties were not relevant factors regarding the desire to succeed. The desire to become a successor prevailed among respondents who had always been involved in their parents' rural property, who received significant encouragement to participate in the farm's activities, and who received knowledge about the subject from their family. Respondents who want to be successors tend to enjoy being on the farm during holidays/vacations/leisure time more than those who do not want to be successors. When bringing attachment to the land into the desire to succeed, the predominant feeling among most respondents who want to be rural successors was love, passion, and pride. In short, most respondents who experienced situations that allowed the development of a sense of attachment to the land wish to become farm successors.