A Ater na atividade agrícola: a experiência dos produtores familiares de Crisópolis-Ba

Abstract

Family farming plays an important role for the country's economy, for the generation of jobs and local income, food and nutrition security, environmental conservation, as well as the preservation of cultural traditions. The production activities carried out by family-based farmers guarantee a large part of the family's income, market share, self-consumption and well-being. Adopting technologies is essential for these farmers to ensure ever-increasing productivity with efficiency and maximum use of the region's potential. Access to public policies, such as those that guarantee Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER) are also fundamental for this category, since under the terms of the law, ATER services for family farmers must be free and of good quality. However, the conditions in which the family farmer finds himself are still precarious, which reflects on his reduced purchasing power and directly on his quality of life. It is in this scenario that this work is presented, which aims to identify the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension indicators and their effects on the agricultural production activity carried out by family farmers in Crisópolis-BA. This information is important in view of the fact that the municipality's economy is based on agriculture and livestock, especially family farming, with a focus mainly on the cultivation of cassava, citrus, annual crops and ruminant breeding. Methodologically, the work departed from a qualitative approach, a field research was carried out, through a semi-structured interview, through the application of a script of questions for 25 family farmers in the municipality, added to secondary research based on documentary and bibliographical research from from the IBGE census, and from content available in digital and physical literature. The method of treatment of the information obtained from the research was the descriptive method and counterpoints were also made between the information/data obtained in the interviews with data from the literature. And in this sense, the main results obtained by the field and documentary research, pointed out that 56% of the interviewed farmers never had access to ATER services, however, 92% of the farmers showed interest in the services, however, the greatest difficulty encountered by them to access these services is of a financial nature. Therefore, for an action by public and/or private entities in the search for improvements in the current conditions of family farmers in Crisópolis, they must be carried out together with other bodies in a planned and harmonious way and with a holistic view, developing a work together with the family farmer. yearning for sustainable rural development.