Agricultura familiar: territorialidade e desenvolvimento local sustentável.

Abstract

Because of a bibliographical research, academic production aimed to show the importance of family farming as a viable alternative to sustainable local development. For this purpose, sustainability is understood as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Assuming, therefore, the continuity and permanence of quality of life and opportunities in time, incorporating a long-term perspective. Its consolidation comes from a set of actions aimed at solving or at least reducing major economic, environmental and social problems, such as depletion of natural resources, rising social inequality and irresponsible economic growth. Within this context, local development appears as an endogenous process registered in small territorial units and human groups, where it is capable of promoting economic dynamism and improving the quality of life of the population. At present, mainly in the Brazilian northeast, family farming is presented as one of the most viable alternatives to sustainable local progress. In Brazil family farming does not yet represent a real priority for agricultural public policies.