A mulher na agricultura: a inter-relação entre o programa de apoio à pequena produção familiar - fno - e a realidade das mulheres agricultoras do cumaru

Abstract

This project is inserted within the project "Family and Productive Units in the Amazon". The present work is a contribution to the study of women in agriculture in the circumstances of the presence of FNO resources. Using gender relations as a basis for analysis, it seeks to understand the program's guidelines and objectives, as well as the difficulties faced by farmers. We will seek to emphasize the differences between the world idealized by the support program and the reality at which it is aimed, seeking to understand it within the category of gender. The justification for the emphasis on gender is due to the fact that the work and the consequent understanding and representation of the world varies greatly in these communities. The methodology used was based on a survey of the socio-economic profile of the families of Cumaru within the general research, seeking to compare the units based on the presence or not of the FNO; the analysis of the Program and interviews with technicians. We observed that there are distinct family mentalities, that there are difficulties between FNO agents and farmers in communication. Women are involved with farming and the destination of finances, men who relate to banks, agents in general, and the market. There are differences in the family units that use the FNO: a small increase in the standard of living of the beneficiaries and bureaucratic regularization of land. According to Nitsch (1993) the inexperience of immigrant settlers with the Amazonian environment requires technical support to survive and progress. In the same way, the technicians of the various development programs need sociological support to understand the particularities of social organization and the diversity of families, and also the roles of each sex in the productive unit and the different ways of accessing and controlling resources, by type of agricultural activity.