Cartilha de Orientações para Associações da Agricultura Familiar no Vale do Ivinhema

Abstract

This booklet seeks to address the importance of associations as a way for family farmers to improve their lives and those of their families and communities, as well as to face the challenges of an increasingly competitive activity. People come together in their daily lives to meet needs, practice solidarity, promote change and undertake joint efforts, acting in groups when they wish to achieve common goals. For Balem (2016, p. 22), "the social organization of family farmers is a way for them to overcome the problems of the selective modernization process and seek new solutions, reinforcing the idea of ​​being a farmer as a social category". This initiative is based on the principle that each location has its own characteristics in the associative/cooperative consciousness of conducting its activities. The municipality of Nova Andradina, located in the southwest of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, with an estimated population of over 50 thousand inhabitants, has a strong connection in its economic and social production based on family farming. The purpose of this manual is to provide family farmers with a broad view of the attitudes and behaviors that favor cooperation and the continued functioning of an association.