TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS IN AGRICULTURAL FRONTIER AREAS IN SOUTHERN PIAUÍ

AN ANALYSIS OF THE MELANCIAS TERRITORY - GILBUÉS

Abstract

This article analyzes territorial conflicts associated with the expansion of the agricultural frontier in southern Piauí, focusing on the Melancias Territory in the state’s Cerrado. Situated within debates on the territorialization of agribusiness, the financialization of land, and processes of land grabbing and expropriation affecting peasant and traditional communities, the study seeks to understand how the expansion of agribusiness—especially soy—reconfigures the regional agrarian space, generating land, socioenvironmental, and legal conflicts articulated with the historical specificities of Piauí’s agrarian formation. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative approach grounded in a literature review, analysis of secondary data (institutional reports, official statistics, and documents from social organizations), and the theoretical framework of the frontier as elaborated by José de Souza Martins. The results indicate that the agricultural frontier in southern Piauí constitutes a social process characterized by the coexistence of multiple temporalities, the privatization of public lands, and the dispossession of traditional populations, revealing that violence and legal insecurity are not deviations but structural components of the expansion of agrarian capital. The conflicts in the Melancias Territory express the contradiction between the dominant agro-export model and the territorial, cultural, and environmental rights of local communities, underscoring the need for new development paradigms and public policies recognizing traditional territories.