Agricultura familiar e políticas públicas: o caso do PRONAF no município de São Miguel-RN.

Abstract

Until recently, tliere was no specitlc politics aiming ai the improvement of the familiar agriculture in Brazil. In fact, there was no concept of familiar agricultura yct- ln 1996, with the creation of the National Program Io lhe Improvement of lhe Familiar Agricultura - PRONAF. During the íirst ycars in which this program worked, however, whát we are able to observe is an intense concentration of its financial resources used in the towns of the richest áreas of our country. Therefore. the present research has as its primary objective analyze and discuss the way in which the rural financing of PRONAF in relation to the Northeastern region of Brazil. specially the reality found in the town of São Miguel/RN, between 1996 and 2001. Throughout the research, we are able to verify that the aforementioned program presents a seleetive and excluding character, based on a productivist logic, which idealizes na "ideal kind" of farmer to be supported in our country, excluding ali the other "incapable" producers of being helped. The research concludes with the unprejudiced application of the macronational criteria of PRONAF in São Miguel/RN, in partnership with local people (rural working syndicate, rural extension department and financing agent). are the main factors responsible for the weak results the program achieved in the town. Due to the faets mentioned above, we could spot, as a result, the exclusion of the majority of the farmers who worked on a familiar basis from the countryside of the city, who are, once more, left to their luck.