OS DESAFIOS DA AGRICULTURA FAMILIAR DO CERRADO PIAUIENSE

Abstract

This article aims to present a social profile of the family farmer in the cerrado of Piauí, due to the new socio-spatial configurations imposed by the phenomenon of the expansion of the agricultural frontier, led by grain agribusiness. Given the changes caused by agribusiness in Uruçuí-PI, the issue to be examined in the article is how family farming builds its strategies for social reproduction of life and work in the face of the contradictions of the dominant development model implemented in the municipality. The choice of Uruçuí for the research is justified by his pioneering role in setting up agribusiness in the cerrado of Piauí. The analysis is based on dialectical and ethnographic methods, through systematic observations, forms and semi-structured interviews with 254 family farmers. It was concluded that family farming in Uruçuí manifested a serious social crisis marked, above all, by problems with land tenure, migrations, low education levels and precarious housing and sanitation conditions, compromising the quality of life of families, impacting on the future of the activity.