Sapezinho, laboratório de uma experiência: notas sobre o processo de intervenção do Estado numa localidade do Recôncavo Baiano.

Abstract

This study deals with the analysis of the effects caused by State Intervention, materialized in the Experimental Agroindustrial Module Project for low income producers, in a locality of the Recôncavo Baiano region, Sapezinho, with an initial public of 64 families of small cassava producers and others The project under analysis is the result of an agreement signed between INAN - National Institute of Food and Nutrition and the World Bank and presented as a basic proposal the modernization of the production of cassava flour through the introduction of a mechanized flour house. It was hoped that the results of the modernization process would make it possible to achieve the general proposal of the state, embodied in the increase in family income as well as in the improvement of the standard of living of the so-called target public. The present work means the rescue of a lived experience, which in addition to making possible, with a greater wealth of details, the perception of the objectives that guide the process of intervention in a concrete reality, also provides, due to the multidisciplinary character of this experience, expressive contributions to various studies on the modernization of agriculture, the "question" of small production, pedagogical aspects of participation and community organization, evaluation of special programs, etc ... The period contemplated by the work, totaled 6 years (1978 to 1984) ranging from the implementation stage to the deactivation of the project in focus. The recovery of this period took place through the use of the participant observation technique, during 16 months of experience with the producers, representatives of institutions (banks, EMATER-Ba) and local power, consultations with personal notes and documents related to the project. Preceding the analysis of the lived experience, we sought to highlight the main theoretical approaches that deal with the nature of the state, as a way of understanding the aforementioned intervention process in contemporary society as well as the objectives that guide it. Subsequently, the rescue of the intervention process of the state began when the latter sought to legitimize its modernizing proposal before the Sapezinho producers, proposed this consonant with the general policy of conservative modernization, since the changes introduced were verified eliminating any change in the agrarian structure in force in the intervention area. In the area studied, it was observed that the changes introduced, on the one hand led to the creation of a group of modernized producers who appropriated the benefits generated by the modernization, and on the other hand proved extremely harmful to the great majority of the Sapezinho producers aggravating even more their living conditions. This finding, instead of making clear the failure of the state action, demonstrates precisely its success, translated in the full achievement of its objectives since it will be mainly through the creation of the aforementioned modernizing layer of producers, thus creating the necessary conditions for the deflagration of the process of capital accumulation verified in the flour producing sector.