Mudanças institucionais na produção de soja orgânica em Capanema, PR

Abstract

The region of Capanema-PR was a national reference of organic production. Despite it keeps maintaining a high demand, supply is in crisis today. From the Old Institutional Economics approach, this dissertation seeks to understand what the institutions represent in organic soybean production, which changes occurred, and How they led producers to change their behavior, in this case, leaving the organic production. The aim of this work is: (1) Identify organic soybean production historical stages in the micro region of Capanema; (2) Identify farmers choices and the elements that characterize organic soybean production decrease,and; (3) Analyze the role of farmers associations in the institutional change of soybean organic production. For all farmers assessed, recognition as organic producers was a technical performance reinterpretation, that habitually was manifested in avoid pesticides and chemical fertilizers of the1980s.The interviews revealed that little effort was required to adapt to the 1st organic certification labels, once the remuneration factor was the major influence in the decision. In late agriculture, farmers needed to hard work more than eight hours in the fields, however, conventional agriculture technological development allowed this situation to change: new technological packages decreased conventional agriculture hardship, making it easier and faster. What once was considered normal, now is taken as very painful, and the organic production conditions started to distance from the common concept. This change led many farmers to leave organic production looking for the new technological convention. This habit change also reflected in a generation perception change, in which farmers just remained organic while they had sufficient manpower to maintain the production system. Thus, nowadays the major obstacle to organic production is lower practicality and its bigger and inconvenient work.