PRODUCTION OF MEANINGS ABOUT PUBLIC POLICIES FOR FAMILY FARMERS FROM THE ARAJARA DISTRICT IN BARBALHA-CE
family farming; rural contexts; public policy; production of senses; Rural Psychology.
In this work we approach the daily life, ways of life and the meanings produced by family farmers in relation to life in rural contexts, family farming and Public Policies for Family Agriculture (Políticas Públicas para Agricultura Familiar – PPAF) implemented in the Cariri region of Ceará. The research was developed in two axes. The first, from 2018 to 2020, dedicated to the analysis of official documents related to family farming and public policies for the sector in Brazil using the analysis of documents in the public domain. The second, carried out between 2020 and 2021, with the production of data in the field through observations and conversations in everyday life, and interviewing subjects who have dedicated their lives to family farming activities, to the leadership of their communities and that throughout this process they participated in PPAF aimed at the sector. The interactions of the second axis took place in three rural communities that make up the Arajara District in the municipality of Barbalha in the Cariri Region, a territory located in the State of Ceará, Northeast Brazil. Assisted by these interlocutors, we sought to understand the repercussions of the implementation, disinvestment and dismantling of the PPAF in Cariri, investigating the meanings produced by these and the changes that such governmental actions produced in their work and in their lives. As main results of our analysis, we highlight the following lines of argument: 1. The name 'family farming' aims to aggregate actresses/actors from rural and urban contexts around a single term. In addition to 'bringing together' different producers beyond agriculture; 2. The PPAFs implemented in Brazil act as catalysts for social change in rural contexts. 3. The discourses that circulate - and also feed back, among the residents, technicians and academics, the political observations and decisions, of which we highlight public policies - affect and update the daily lives and ways of life in rural contexts. We conclude on public policies that food and nutrition security PPAFs suffered a drastic reduction in the financial resources invested in the programs between 2014 and 2020, while the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture - Pronaf, a credit PPAF, continued with practically unchanged resources in this period. However, the continuity of the credit granting program disconnected from other PPAFs is insufficient for the valorization and maintenance of this social category.