Agricultura familiar: validação e sustentabilidade das patrulhas agrícolas

Abstract

The Family Farming increasingly seeking viable alternatives of mechanization, especially in order to minimize the physical effort that the farmer has to spend in his daily work. In order to contribute to this situation, some municipalities have formed farm machinery services (MSs), which is the name given to the collection of agricultural machinery available to farmers. This study aims to characterize and evaluate the performance of the MSs of the municipalities of Arroio do Padre, Canguçu, Capão Leão, Jaguarão, São Lourenço do Sul and Turuçu, all located in the southern region of Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. To this end, an exploratory survey was applied, which dividinged the people involved in internal customers (people directly involved in the management of the MSs, intermediate customers (machine operators) and external customers (farmers who use the services of MSs). For the collection of field data, a semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used. The data showed that MSs are well structured in terms of machinery, as they have in their compositions a variety of machines in accordance to with the main crops plantedin of the in the regions where they operate. However, there are problems, especially with respect to their sizing and the real needs of family farmers. Also, it was observed that the best management practice in the MSs occurs when this task is transferred to the associations of producers, this lead causes them to organize themselves, create a spirit of cooperation and mutual assistance. This, in turn, is also a way to improve the care of a public asset that belongs to everyone. Another point that stands out refers to the machine operators. It was observed that, in the cities analyzed, this type of activity has improved operating results when operators are outsourced. The investigation allowed concluding that the state farm machinery services have as main characteristic the assistance to farmers, especially those with less means to mechanize their properties.