Mercados para variedades de feijão da agricultura familiar : conservação da agrobiodiversidade ou caminhos para a especialização produtiva?

Abstract

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the main products from Brazil’s family farming and they present a great diversity of varieties cultivated in situ, what diverges from the bean production chain that seeks the productive specialization in few varieties. The general objective of this work is to analyze the markets for family farming’s bean varieties and to identify if there is diversification or productive specialization from the conservation’s perspective of the landrace varieties. Also, specific objectives are to describe markets and commercialization channels, the production’s destination, identify the contributions of farmers' social organizations to local development and market influences on bean production and consumption. This research is of qualitative character with quantitative data for illustration and was developed in five cities of the Southern Agreste of Pernambuco in the well-known "bean territory". For data collection, the methods of a semi-structured interview, direct observation, and documentary analysis were used. During the research, 50 interviews were performed, whose data were analyzed using simple frequency and presented in graphs, tables, and images. It has been found that markets and commercialization channels for bean production are insufficient for adequate outflow and good remuneration for family farmers, having just cities’ bean fairs being almost the only channel available to farmers for commercialization. Bean fairs are dominated by middlemen who buy what is produced usually at low prices. Bean produced in Southern Agreste follows several routes and destinations, supplying mainly cities and states of the Northeast. Local development from the bean production chain counts with important actors such as the Family Farm Producers' Cooperative and the communitarian seed houses and banks, social organizations of the farmers that have been working in search of better productive, economic and organizational conditions. The market influenced the bean chain, inducing the productive specialization of this activity, not promoting the commercialization of diversity of varieties, but looking for, together with the farmers, especially the production of black beans and carioca, varieties that are widely packaged in the territory. It is suggested the search and formation of an alternative and local markets for the outflow of the diversified and agroecological production in the Southern Agreste of Pernambuco.