Informações técnicas e outros fatores que afetam o processo decisório de agricultores familiares do Recôncavo da Bahia

Abstract

The general objective proposed in this study is to characterize and analyze the factors that affect the process of decision making and identify what are the sources of information available to the farmers of Bahia Reconcavo. The study was conducted from data collected from 35 of Family Production Systems- SPF, distributed among six municipalities in the Territory Reconcavo Southern Bahia, Cabaceiras do Paraguaçu, Cruz das Almas, Maragogipe, Muritiba, San Felipe and San Felix. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaire, applied during the period from March to November 2013, with pre-prepared scripts. Qualitative and quantitative variables in order to provide functional information about the SPF were constructed. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using the Multivariate Statistics techniques, a factor analysis to quantitative data called: ACP Principais - Component Analysis to identify the most explanatory variables. The convergence of data was achieved in 17 iterations and analyses of quality parameters were satisfactory: the variance explained in the first three components (52.98%) is considered acceptable. The results obtained from the Typology made in ACP demonstrate that farmers have low levels of formal education and the educational level is a determining factor in the decision-making process. According to the sources of information available to farmers it was found that the sources of information they trust the most are those from the family unit. As the linear adjustment, the number of activities carried out, depending on the surface for animal production, had linear behavior (p<0.05) results show that the area for livestock production increases with the number of activities in the system. In the linear fit, the surface for animal production due to the daily workload demand, also had linear behavior (p<0.05) this indicates that the area devoted to livestock production increases due to the diversity of productive activities and increase the area devoted to animal production. In the analysis of weekly work done by family members was no difference (p<0.05). The father and the children have the same average workload compared to the mother who has little involvement in activities that pay. It was found that in the category "Other" do not participate in agricultural activities. Thus it is concluded that farmers who have formal education tend to take decision in a shared manner and the low reliability of external information sources are striking features in the SPF. The strength of the daily work is concentrated in the parent and children and the workload increases due to the diversity of agricultural activities and management with animals.