A valorização da agricultura familiar e a reivindicação da ruralidade no Brasil

Two facts, of great importance, have marked recent transformations in the Brazilian rural world. For the first time in Brazilian history, family farming has been officially recognized as a social actor. Prior to this it was seen in terms of the rural poor or in terms of low income and small producers. Today family fanners are perceived as the bearers of another conception of agriculture. different and alternative from estate and landlord agriculture which has traditionally dominated the countryside. The Programme of Support For Family Farming (PRONAF), established in Brazil during the 1990s, despite the recognized limits to its effective adoption. constitute an expression of this change. The second fact is that a strong and effective demand for land, by rural social movements, has created a sector of agrarian reform settlements. One of the principal consequences of these two facts is an increased appreciation of thecountryside as a place of work and li vingo This finds expression in demands to remain in the countryside or return to the land. This "rurality" of family farming, which populates the countryside and animates its social life, opposes the absenteism practiced by estate agriculture, which depopulates the countryside and is predatory on rural space. The new "rurality" opposes at the same time the "urbancentred" vision dominant in society and th perception of a rural environment without farmers