Importância socioeconômica e cultural da COOPERVIDA na agricultura familiar do Rio Grande do Norte.

Abstract

The reality of social movements is quite dynamic, diverse and complex, for instance what Brazil experienced in the mid-1970s and 1980s, that was a period in which the social subjects fought for their political and equal rights, due to the resistance to the authoritarian regime of the time. Over the years, there was the arising of other forms of institutionalized popular organization that were meant to access a humanized democracy. Based on this historical conjuncture and oscillating struggle of Brazilian cooperatives, there is now an specific legislation. The Cooperative Assistance and Multiple Services to Rural Development - Coopervida came from a strong and collective process of debate of a new proposal for technical assistance focused on agroecology and rural based. The name and the logo were thought up to have a better representation of the proposal being worked on the farms of the families, as Cooper=Cooperative = Life = new, where the combination of these two terms became Coopervida. As for the logo, it started from the idea of the land that springs, hands that help to sow, transplantating. So on November 21st, 1999 the organization of the research was born. This paper aims to conduct a study on the socioeconomic and cultural importance of COOPERVIDA in family farming in Rio Grande do Norte. The methodology used was the case study through two phases, exploratory and data analysis. At first, there was the rescue of the document collection, minutes, project contracts, and photographic records to corroborate this information, interviews were made with questionnaire aid. The group of questions depended, according to the functions performed by each partner or member. The second phase brought the results of the projects implemented, and evaluated its numerical quantity. The actions developed by the cooperative are important for the strengthening of family agriculture, economic solidarity and empowerment processes of families, which is to contribute to the generation of employment and income opportunities in the countryside and consequently the reduction of the rural exodus. By analyzing the data it was concluded that the Cooperative Advisory and Multiple Services to Rural Development - COOPERVIDA attended 36.255 farmers, in 25 municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte, in seven projects with actions based on the field of agroecology, family farming, generation and gender. The logo can be considered very important for the sector. Regarding the challenges, it was seen that the shortage in professional technical training and financial condition are the difficulties that encumber greater care, since it was cited by 14 interviewees. On the other hand, the route of access to communities is not an alarming factor, since it was cited by only one of the interviewees.