Torrão de origem: estudo sobre estratégias de gestão e reprodução na agricultura familiar do Alto Jequitinhonha

Abstract

This study has as an objective to know how farming families of the Alto Jequitinhonha, northeast of Minas Gerais, generate their resources and elaborate strategies seeking the satisfaction of their needs. The primary data was collected through interviews done with three rural community families located in the municipal districts of Carbonita, Chapada do Norte and Virgem da Lapa. It was clearly shown that structure of available assets for the farming family and which can be mobilized for the satisfaction of their needs tends to vary along the year, and it is associated to the variations of the productive cycle. This demands of the families the elaboration of different strategies that involve the members of the home, the community and agents outside of these spheres. In the community, kinship and solidarity ties allow the members of the most vulnerable homes to lean on those less vulnerable, usually retired who, for having a certain income, confer stability to the group. In the market, together with the local merchants, it was observed that the families try to cultivate relationships that do not end up in mercantile exchanges, but which are supported by symbols and agreements built starting from the mutual knowledge among the agents and which guarantee the regularity of provision even at times when they do not have money. It is concluded that even in the periods in which they find themselves more dependent on the market for provisioning, the families limit themselves and mobilize other resources, demonstrating that the lack of liquidity not always exercises an immediate impact on the families´ reproduction conditions.