MILK PRODUCTION IN FAMILY AGRICULTURE IN THE WESTERN REGION OF SANTA CATARINA: TECHNOLOGICAL TRAJECTORIES AND MARKETS IN DISPUTE
Keywords:
Family farming, Dairy activity, Agri-food markets, Social exclusion, Regional developmentAbstract
Milk production can be considered as the main socio-economic activity of rural areas in the western region of Santa Catarina, which concentrates about 79% of milk production in this Brazilian state. In this region, especially since the 1990s, dairy farming has become the main alternative for inclusion in the market of thousands of families excluded from the production of other agricultural activities, especially pork breeding. In the last decades, there has been a gradual expansion of that activity, without excessively concentrating production, and without significant exclusion of families from the fluid milk market. More recently, there are signs of changes in this situation. Especially with the expansion in the region of milk production in confined systems. This text analyzes data from ongoing research, the objective of which is to determine and analyze what are the impacts generated by technological changes and by the increase in scale in dairy farming in family farming in western Santa Catarina. The methodological procedures include bibliographic research, tabulation, and analysis of agricultural censuses and the performance of semi-structured interviews with directors and dairy technicians and cooperatives, technicians from the public rural extension, representatives of farmers' unions and federations, representatives of NGOs and family farmers who produce milk. It is concluded that among the main reasons that lead family farmers to adopt confined milk systems are the rugged topography of the region, the need to increase the scale of production due to economic specialization and issues related to professional succession.