Os sistemas apícolas e a agricultura familiar: um estudo de caso sobre a Cooperativa de Apicultores de Canguçu (COOMELCA), município de Canguçu, RS

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of an exploratory research that seeks to understand the context of the apiculture systems inserted in family agriculture, through the in-depth analysis of the apicultural production units of the family farmers associated with the Cooperativa de Apicultores de Canguçu (COOMELCA). Identifying, in this way, the potentialities and barriers of production and marketing of products derived from the activity; Understanding the relevance of the Cooperative to the maintenance of its beekeeping activities in the production units and, finally, if beekeepers gain access to public policies. For this, 17 individual interviews were conducted among beekeepers in the municipalities of Canguçu and Piratini, RS. The results point to the potential of beekeeping as a form of sustainable rural development in family agriculture. However, apiculture has a predominant characteristic, in the units interviewed, to be developed along with other economic activities, or even considered as an activity that complements income. Thus, the studied beekeeping enterprises fail to obtain better results both in production and in commercialization due to the lack of investment, both economically and in the time dedicated to beekeeping. The Cooperative, founded by these family beekeepers, served as a motivation to reverse this reality and thus achieve better conditions to develop the activity in the production unit, even with the difficulty of gaining access to market channels and public policies.