A ADESÃO DO GOVERNO MUNICIPAL DE ILHÉUS À AGRICULTURA FAMILIAR

Abstract

From the decay of the cocoa economy in the late 1980s, family agriculture entered the public agenda in Ilhéus and started to receive incentives for its development. The implementation of the Food Acquisition Program (PAA), the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) and the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Program (ATER) by cooperatives and municipal authorities from 2006 onwards point to the disruption with the colonelist tradition and for the emergence of new social relations in the municipality. The political domination imposed by cocoa colonels on Ilhean society, in more than a century of economic cacao farming, has generated an atmosphere of great social unrest, marked by fierce political disputes. After more than three decades of the political and economic weakening of these landowners these brands still present in Ilhéus. The programs were implemented in a context of political divisions and intrigues, and farmers are affiliated with associations and cooperatives that live in disputes over power in the municipality. On the other hand, depending on who the municipal manager is a certain group of farmers and their cooperative will have primacy in the programs implemented. It has been found that this situation makes it difficult to organize and develop these farmers who remain largely unsupported and economically weakened. Based on this framework, the objective was to investigate the reasons that led the municipal government to carry out the simultaneous implementation of the PAA, the PNAE and the ATER. Thus, it is believed that, not being overcome the conflicts and contradictions that mark this society, the benefits of this political action may be favoring political groups that seek to perpetuate themselves in local power. Data were collected through primary and secondary sources: interviews with municipal secretaries, presidents of cooperatives, farmers, among others; In addition, research was done on the internet and in bibliographic sources. The data collected concern the process of implementing the programs in the municipality, the benefits, the favored ones, the representation and the structure of the farmers. As it turned out, the execution of the program by the municipal power sought among other things to share the political protagonism with the family farmers due to the emergence of rural leaders in the adversary field. Instead of promoting the articulation and organization of the category, the way in which the political actions took place there were divisions and disputes between the rural segments of the municipality.