Short marketing circuits and territorial rural development policies emphasize the importance of the reconnection between food production and consumption, with repercussions on the food security and sovereignty of local populations. For this, we analyzed official documents of the Program for the Sustainable Development of Rural Territories, the Citizenship Territories Program, the Territorial Development Plans, as well as field research on projects carried out in three rural territories and citizenship in the South of Brazil. From this analysis, it is possible to think of the strengthening of short circuits as the mechanism to promote rural territorial development.
Los pequeños circuitos de marketing y las políticas de desarrollo rural hacen énfasis en la importancia de la reconexión entre producción de alimentos y su consumo, con repercusiones sobre la seguridad alimentaria y la soberanía de las poblaciones locales. Para ello, analizamos los documentos oficiales del Programa para el desarrollo sostenible de territorios rurales, el Programa de territorios para la ciudadanía, los Planes de desarrollo territorial, como también las investigaciones de campo sobre proyectos llevados a cabo en tres territorios rurales y de la ciudadanía en el sur de Brasil. A partir de este análisis, es posible pensar en el fortalecimiento de los circuitos pequeños como el mecanismo para fomentar el desarrollo territorial rural.
Os pequenos circuitos de marketing e as políticas de desenvolvimento rural fazem ênfase na importância da reconexão entre produção de alimentos e consumo, com repercussões na segurança alimentar e a soberania das populações locais. Para isso, analisamos os documentos oficiais do Programa para o desenvolvimento sustentável de territórios rurais, o Programa de territórios para a cidadania, os Planos de desenvolvimento territorial, bem como as pesquisas de campo sobre projetos realizados em três territórios rurais e da cidadania no sul do Brasil. A partir dessa análise é possível pensar no fortalecimento dos circuitos pequenos como mecanismo para fomentar o desenvolvimento territorial rural.
The data presented by Alan Bojanic for the United Nations Annual Report on Food and Nutrition Security for 2017 indicated that after nearly a decade of decline, the number of people affected by hunger in the world increased again with 815 million people in this situation and 11% of the world’s population suffering from chronic malnutrition by 2016 (
On the other hand, there are 641 million obese adults, which corresponds to 13% of the total adults on the planet. So one of the challenges to be faced relates to the food security of the growing world population, expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. Not just access to sufficient, but with quality and diversity to meet their nutritional needs. The Sustainable Development Goals (ODS) have brought hunger, food and nutritional security and agriculture under Objective 2: “Ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture”.
In this scenario, Brazil has emerged as the country with great potential for growth in food production. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that a country is expected to leverage its production by about 40 percent, while countries like China (15 percent), the European Union (12 percent), the United States (10 percent), Canada (9%), Australia (9%) and Russia (7%) are also expected to grow significantly by 2027.
The Agribusiness Projections Report Brazil 2016/17 to 2026/27, prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), estimates that grain production should grow 24% in the period, highlighting corn, soybeans and wheat. Meat production (beef, pork and poultry) is expected to grow by 28%. Faced with such projections, the question that emerges is: what kind of food will be produced for the Brazilian and world population? Would not this pattern of consumption be a key aspect of increasing obesity in the world? Would not we be fomenting the same model that has generated wars and conflicts and, combined with natural phenomena such as droughts, floods, has generated mass migrations and increased hunger in the world?
Undoubtedly, the long circuits that shape the food empires are able to meet the world food demand. However, traditional rural development strategies have disregarded the short marketing circuits, based on this face-to-face interaction, in the relations of trust between producer and consumer in the academic, social and political spheres.
In this sense, discussions about the short and decentralized marketing circuits (
In view of the above, it is believed that the territorial perspective of rural development and, more specifically, territorial policies have the potential to encompass the dimensions of food security discussed above, promoting development dynamics that, when approximating production and consumption, will be able to promote food sovereignty, greater social equity and fewer environmental impacts. The intention is to show that, although the Brazilian territorial policy is allowing the creation or strengthening of short commercialization circuits, this is not an explicit policy objective even if this potential is observed to be fomented, capable of giving policy the territorial character.
Thus, this article is structured in five sections to include this introduction. The second part deals with Brazilian territorial politics and its dynamics, highlighting how the rural perspective of development advances with the question of territories. In the third section, we highlight the approach of short marketing circuits as a theoretical proposal for understanding rural territorial development based on its public policy. Following, the methodology of the work is presented which is the result of a research project funded by the promotion agency CNPq (Brazil). In addition, we have the analysis of the rural projects understood as experiences of short circuits of commercialization as a mechanism to promote territorial development. Finally, they follow the considerations.
The territorial perspective of development is an important advance for the promotion of development, especially rural development, since public policies with this perspective have actions focused on rural areas.
The principle of the territorialization of public policies would be based on three points: 1) the public service or good is not evenly distributed by the central authority; 2) the attempt to approach users or beneficiaries in decision-making about problems; 3) the territory is not defined administratively, but according to a specifically territorial dynamics (
The territorial perspective of sustainable rural development, proposed by the Brazilian State, involves an integrative vision of spaces, social actors, markets and public intervention policies. It is proposed the development of solutions that contemplate combinations between the various dimensions of sustainable development: economic, socio-cultural, political-institutional and environmental (
In the conception of
In this perspective, the policy with a territorial designation arises in Brazil in the rural sphere, within the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), with the creation of the Territorial Development Secretariat (SDT), implementing the Program for the Sustainable Development of Rural Territories (Pronat), created in 2003 and Territory of Citizenship Program (PTC), created in 2008.
In Pronat, territory is understood as a geographically defined physical space comprising cities and fields, characterized by multidimensional criteria (environment, economy, society, culture, politics and institutions) and a population with distinct social groups where one can distinguish one or more elements that indicate social, cultural and territorial identity and cohesion. The rural territory would be the space where the multidimensional criteria that characterize it present the predominance of rural elements (
The objective of Pronat was to promote and support initiatives of the representative institutions of rural areas that aim at a sustainable increase in the quality of life levels of the rural population. The selection of rural territories for actions was based on geographic microregions that showed population density of less than 80 inhab/km² and an average population per municipality of up to 50,000 inhabitants, as well as the presence of family farmers, settled families and families of campesino workers (
The organizational structure of the territories was supported by the Colleges of Territorial Development (Codeter), which should be composed of representatives of the municipal, state and federal spheres and society, with at least a 50% participation by civil society. Codeter was responsible for deliberating and proposing actions for the sustainable development of territories, as well as articulating public policies, planning actions and defining the programs and projects that should be part of the Territorial Plan for Sustainable Territorial Development (PTDRS).
As for the volume of funds contracted, these increased from R$ 82.7 million in 2003 to R$ 264.7 million in 2007, which corresponds to an increase of 272%. From 2007 to 2008, there was a decrease in the contracted value of approximately R$ 40 million, linked to the decrease in resources resulting from the parliamentary amendments. While the other lines increased their budget in 2008, the territorial amendments were down 50% compared to the previous year (Wesz Júnior & Leite, 2010).
The Territorial Citizenship Program (PTC) is the result of the finding of significant socioeconomic inequalities between the rural territories themselves. The priority of the PTC was to serve territories that have low access to basic services, indices of stagnation in income generation, and lack of integrated and sustainable policies for economic autonomy. The main objective is to overcome poverty and generate work and income in rural areas through a sustainable territorial development strategy (
Based on the concept of territory adopted by Pronat, the PTC adds new criteria for the selection of Citizenship Territories among the rural territories, with one presence per state in 2008 and two in 2009. The criteria mentioned are: (a) Human Development Index (HDI); (b) greater concentration of family farmers and settlers of Agrarian Reform; (c) greater concentration of quilombolas and natives; (d) greater number of beneficiaries of federal income transfer programs; (e) greater number of municipalities with low economic dynamism; (f) greater social organization; (g) Lower Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) (
The coordination of the Program was carried out by the MDA, its institutional articulation by the Civil House, the budget issue by the Ministry of Budget and Management Planning (MPOG) and monitoring by the Center for Agrarian Studies and Rural Development (NEAD) (
Regarding the resources destined to the PTC, the authors point out that in 2008 the predicted value for the 60 Territories of Citizenship reached R $ 12.8 billion, a figure that reached almost R $ 25 billion in 2009 with the entry of 60 new territories. In 2010, the amount of funds increased to R $ 26.8 billion. There was therefore a growth of 109.8% from 2008 to 2010. The lines with the highest growth were (a) sustainable organization of production and health and (b) sanitation and access to water, which increased the estimated value by 187.5% and 147.7%, respectively. The theme that had a reduction in these three years was that of Land Stocks (27%).
However, there are several challenges that must be addressed to the territorial policy of rural development in Brazil.
These characteristics, together with the cooling of the proposal from 2011 onwards at the federal level, with a consequent weakening of the institutions, disarticulation and frustration of the territorial actors, made difficult the progress of the territorial policy. The financing of collective infrastructure and equipment does not allow responding to many of the priority structural problems identified in the PTDRS.
It is latent the need of consolidation of territorial instances and execution of actions, in a more autonomous way. One of the factors that can explain this situation is the way of sensitization and mobilization implemented to start the cycle of social management in the territories. The territorial actors called for the constitution of the Collegiate are motivated more by the resources to finance projects and less to the constitution of a territorial development project point (
Although
Development processes in rural areas, hegemonically, follow the pattern of modernity. Taking back
Warns
This is how the food empires are strengthened, understood by
It is argued here that the attainment of food and nutritional sovereignty and security will not be ensured by the strengthening of the long chains, as expressed in the USDA and MAPA projections, by exporting primary products or even processed commodities. Healthy, diversified and fresh foods that respect the eating habits of different populations also require a look and the establishment of strategies to strengthen family production and short circuits.
It is also understood that, given a context of increasing obesity and an increase in the world demand for food, these circuits come back as a possibility to foment local economies, including peripheral ones, to provide access to varied and fresh food, able to provide sovereignty and food and nutrition security. It is worth emphasizing that in the construction and strengthening of these local circuits of production-consumption, the role of the consumer is essential.
According to
The relationship with the Brazilian territorial policy can be woven by understanding that the short circuits of commercialization are essential for the local economy, for the generation of work and income and the supply of healthy foods, as proposed by the PTC’s larger objective. In addition, the proximity circuits, according to
The author also systematizes the qualities of the short circuits: they maintain the value of the territories of origin through relocation, generate jobs, capture value from the territorial enclave, improve the resilience of territories, value heritage, act in the role of dynamizing and functional attraction in the territories, increase the territorial appropriation due to the spatial concentration of functions or the exploration of qualities of agricultural products. The combination of territorial proximity and short circuits helps to strengthen social ties and foster fair trade exchanges, while contributing to the greater autonomy of the actors.
Returning to
In practical terms, the authors clarify that short circuits can occur through products produced in small rural family farms or in face-to-face relationships, such as home sales and free trade fairs, whether agricultural products or even handicrafts (
Spatial
proximity: the products are produced and distributed in the specific region of production; Spatially
extended: products loaded with values, meanings and local information and can be
marketed outside the region of production; Face
to face: direct sale from the producer to the consumer, as occurs in the free trade
fairs.
According to
These authors discuss the ability of short circuits to generate structural changes on a larger scale. They argue that these markets can contribute to a transformation of power relations within the food systems, including greater participation of consumers and producers in the definition of modes of production, exchange and consumption, which refers to autonomy.
It is precisely because these short-circuit definitions approximate the territorial perspective of rural development, since both allude to the possibility of autonomy or protagonism of the actors and their local institutions. They emphasize the necessary link between concrete experiences and a social and political movement opposed to the dominant conventional model (
A bottom-up action, promoting short circuits, could be the basis for the constitution of territorial development projects, still little consolidated, as already pointed out by
It should be emphasized that, although the territorial policy involves an integrative vision of spaces, social actors, markets and public policies of intervention, the consumer is a disregarded actor in this dynamic. Such actions of reconnection with the local should go beyond the objectives of the territorial policy itself. Considering the consumer as a social actor and integrating it into territorial dynamics seems fundamental for the development of the territory and its socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental specificities. The observation of
Through the mentioned, the projects implemented in two rural territories and one of the citizenship in the southern region of Brazil will be analyzed, pointed by the members of the Collegiate as “projects with greater territorial repercussions” in the rural development, evidencing that these are representative of short commercialization circuits.
As a methodological path, this article is a result of the research carried out with funding from the Brazilian development agency, CAPES, through the edict MCTI/CNPq/MEC/CAPES N. 43/2013. So, a bibliographical research was initially carried out from official documents about the regional and territorial development policies that allowed to list the characteristics, objectives and actions that constitute these policies. Specifically for this work, the focus was on territorial politics.
From this information, field research was carried out in the three southern states of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná, where two rural territories (PR and SC) and one citizenship territory (RS) were identified, which were part of the main study. This research was descriptive, based on multiple case studies, with a qualitative approach. As a technique, 15 interviews were conducted with semi-structured script with members that make up the Meso-region Forum of the Great Frontier of Mercosur and Territorial Collegiate, and project beneficiaries.
This was a qualitative research, based on a case study. The choice of territories was based on the criterion of overlap between the two regionalizations. Out of all the possible territories, those with easier access to researchers were chosen. The members of the colleges were asked to indicate the most successful project or that best represented the territorial dynamics. In this way, the PRONAT project investigated the vitiviniculture project in the rural territory of Southwest Paranaense, the Unified System of Attention to Agricultural and Livestock Health (Prosuasa) in the municipality of Chapecó (SC) in the Rural Western Territory of Santa Catarina. Already by the PTC, in the territory of the Middle-High Uruguay citizenship, the project of strengthening family agriculture through the milk production chain was analyzed.
The projects that are analyzed in section 4 were chosen as the priorities by the interviewees. Also, the study of these projects through the approach of the short marketing circuits allows an empirical view of rural territorial development policy in regions that have historically been relegated to the traditional processes of agricultural production.
In the Southeastern rural territory of Parana, the
viticulture project of the Association of Viticultural
Producers of Verê (Aprovive),
located in the municipality of Verê / PR, which predates
Pronat, was analyzed.
In the year 2000, an SC company, exporter of concentrated juices, proposed to implement a project of vineyards in properties of the municipality. However, in 2002 the company declared bankruptcy and the farmers were left without support and without market for their production. Faced with this situation, the winemakers created the Aprovive, aiming to give a destination to the grape production.
Between 2004 and 2005, in a partnership with the municipal government of Verê, the Viry Juice Industry was implemented to commercialize grapes and make wines (
According to interviews carried out with members of this PR territory, the 12 families involved process from five to six thousand kilos of grapes, reaching to produce 50,000 liters of organic grape juice, marketed to 25 municipalities in the region, mainly destined for school feeding. The remains of the grape are sent to the Association of Agroecological Producers of Verê (Apav), where they are transformed into jellies. The same happens with the pulp production for juice, in sachets. Apav products are marketed in the association, in school meals and in some markets outside the municipality, as in Curitiba (
It can be seen from the trajectory of the association
that with the partnership with the CAPA there is, according to
In the Rural Territory of the West of Santa Catarina, the Program of the Unified System of Attention to
Agricultural and Livestock Sanity (Prosuasa) was indicated.
Initiated in 2012, the objective was to enable the accreditation of agroindustries with the Brazilian System of Inspection of Animal
Origin Products / Unified System of Attention to Agricultural and Livestock Sanity
(SISBI / SUASA), within the scope of the Intermunicipal
Consortium for Economic, Social and of the Environment (Cidema).
This accreditation aims to expand the markets of agroindustries
(products of animal origin) beyond the municipal territory.
In the territory, Cidema’s partnership with Saga Agency was established and a diagnosis was made that indicated the interest of 52 agroindustries in procuring Suasa. According to interviewee of the collegiate: “And then we took the resource to strengthen the municipal systems, the resource gave at the time to buy a car for each municipality to veterinarian act in the municipal inspection, then that was the purpose of the project” (Interview 12 - member of Amosc and Territorial Collegiate).
According to SGE, in 2012, an amount of R $ 438,735.71 was released to structure the Cidema, through the acquisition of machinery and equipment so that the technicians could act in the management of Prosuasa. Pronat’s resources helped strengthen the municipal inspection systems, with the acquisition of cars for veterinarians in their respective municipalities.
According to interviews, there are three agroindustries accredited by Prosuasa: one of eggs in the municipality of São Carlos, one of meat derivatives (hamburger) in Coronel Freitas and an egg industry in Cordillera Alta, as shown in the
This project tends to build a short circuit on the regional scale, which can be corroborated by the speech of one of the interviewees:
(...) the one from São Carlos, he had a local
trade, produced and had 8,000 headquarters for to produce eggs. In the following
year, he accredited and already had 30,000 headquarters, and has even more potential
to grow, (...) the market for this type of establishment has, as long as it is organized
and structured, then our contribution as consortium is, first, to strengthen a regional
development project, to provide a condition for the personnel to access the market
and to have added value to their production, is a way to fix that citizen in the
field. (Interview 12 - Amosc member and Territorial Colegio, 2016)
With this report of a member of the territorial
collegiate it is noted that with a local institutional reconfiguration it has been
possible to expand the trade of agroindustries, especially
those that have been able, through a consortium, to become accredited in SISBI /
SUASA. According to
In the territory of the High Middle Uruguayan citizenship,
the project Strengthening of Family Agriculture through the Milk Production Chain
was chosen as the priority in territorial actions, starting in 2010. The location
of the territory is presented in
Among the different incentives to milk production,
one of them refers to the construction of a Food and Beverage Analysis Laboratory
(LAAB), located in the dependencies of the Integrated Regional University (URI),
in Federico Westphalen (RS). The Laboratory is able to
provide services for the milk and dairy chain, and can also perform analyzes on
different types of samples, such as meat products and derivatives and animal nutrition
products, among others, performing microbiological and physicochemical tests.
The proposal of the laboratory of milk analysis is to face the challenge of making the industrial process feasible for a good part of the milk produced in the region, improving the appropriation of income for farmers, cooperatives, associations of producers and their municipalities (
Thus, we infer that territorial policy has financed short circuits, whose actors often access other policies that also encourage these circuits, such as the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and even actions of the National Policy of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (PNATER). The projects presented above demonstrate a valorization and dynamism of the territories as they revolve the local economy, foster fair trade exchanges and strengthen social ties, while contributing to the greater autonomy of the actors involved in the short circuits.
To the extent that territorial policy assumes the creation and promotion of short marketing channels as an objective that surpasses the others, by aggregating actions with the consumer public, it will be possible to qualify the territorial dimension of rural development policies.
It is worth emphasizing that in the construction and strengthening of these local circuits of production-consumption, the role of the consumer is essential. Consumers should be aware that their quality of life is closely associated with agricultural models and their multiple environmental services. Actions in this sense are essential to a territorial policy, since it creates the possibility of strengthening social, cultural and territorial identity and cohesion, integrating urban and rural (
It was sought to draw attention in this work on the contribution of the short marketing circuits that reconnect producers and consumers, to promote sovereignty and food and nutritional security, especially in a scenario of increased hunger on the one hand, and overweight and obesity for another. Traditional rural development strategies have sought to include farmers, including their families, in markets characterized by long circuits, see Brazils Brazil 2016/17 to 2026/27 Projections Report, which proposes an increase in the export of Brazilian commodities. This hegemonic model may contribute to the reduction of hunger, but its contribution to the sovereignty and food and nutritional security of the peoples is questionable. It will be difficult to provide fresh, diversified and suitable food for the local / regional food crop from long lines. In the same way, the maintenance of the agroecosystemic biodiversity is put in check.
Small and biodiverse productive units have healthier economies and lower social problems. It has been observed that there are consumers seeking food backed by own values associated with family farming: fresh, organic, artisanal, territorial, with geographical indication, sustainable, etc. Expanding this is important both for the well-being of the producer and for the consumer and for the environment. It is important that public policies understand the role of the consumer in this process of rebuilding the relationship with food production.
On the other hand, consumers also need to be aware that their quality of life is closely associated with agricultural models and their multiple environmental services. That is, production, consumption and society are directly related and any change in one of them, will generate changes in the others as well as in the territorial dynamics of rural development.
Parallel to this discussion, there are two programs that use the territorial perspective of rural development that, besides being paralyzed by the Federal Government, did not incorporate the promotion of short circuits to their objectives, principles and methodology, nor did they include the consumer as an essential actor for the promotion of socio-cultural, environmental and economic dynamics in the territories. Although the projects presented in section 4 encourage short circuits and territorial policy support the overcoming of the strictly sectoral horizon, the development dynamics analyzed need to move forward in this aspect, and could promote a closer field-city and producer-consumer, expanding the institutions that support such dynamics.
Dynamic and consolidated agrifood short circuits reverberate in greater sovereignty and food and nutritional security, constituting a scalar mosaic of territories. It is understood that this is a means for the construction of a territorial cohesion that creates the conditions for the architecture of territorial pacts for the inclusive development of the social, rural and urban segments.
Research article