REFLEXOS DO COOPERATIVISMO DA AGRICULTURA FAMILIAR NO DESENVOLVIMENTO TERRITORIAL NA BAHIA

Abstract

The objective of this project is to discuss the stimulus of family farming cooperatives in rural communities in Bahia, analyzing to what extent and based on what conditions such practices increased farmers' productive potential, diversified marketing channels and formed forums on public policy demands, as well as its reflexes on its surroundings communities. In the last decades, cooperativism has been placed as an important strategy for promoting development and for overcoming poverty through the mobilization of local resources, especially in rural areas. Through cooperativism family farming has found a differentiated space for creating strategies for its social and economic reproduction. In this scenario, it is relevant to produce studies and scientific researches to demonstrate the potentialities, limits and challenges of the associative formats adopted by farmers with a view to territorial and sustainable development. This is a fertile field of research, still incipient in the state ofBahia, considering the recent dynamics in rural areas that incite new socioeconomic processes that need to be identified and understood in their specific contexts and by their own actors. In this sense, the partial results discussed in this communication were based on primary data from cooperatives ofSisalTerritory. These results can provide subsidies for public policy and can provide information to institutions which support and promote rural development in the state ofBahia, from understanding the specificities of the reality of local cooperatives and disseminating systematic information on strategies carried out by family farmers.