Social structure and economic performance: the case of organic banana farmers in the vale do Ribeira region, in Brazil
Social structure and economic performance: the case of organic banana farmers in the vale do Ribeira region, in Brazil

Summary/Abstract: Organic production is an essential strategy for a better food security in contemporary society. However, this mode of agrarian production is not present in a massive manner on important regions of food production around the world. For instance, in Vale do Ribeira, the biggest banana producer region in Brazil, organic farming represents only 0,4% of total banana output. An explanatory fieldwork on the local permitted to state that organic farmers face several challenges to implement a full organic production system. Therefore, our main goal with the present article is to enlighten which are the main difficulties for the full implementation of this mode of production. Our main hypothesis is that barriers to access local food markets represents the main challenge for organic producers in the Vale do Ribeira, compromising its production system sustainability in the long term. In order to test such hypothesis, we conducted both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of eight different banana producers–four conventional, and four organic producers, and also an agronomic analysis of 15 banana plants in one hectare in each propriety, in order to have all agronomic parameters needed for an analysis of their farming systems. By ranking the main difficulties cited by banana farmers and conducting a multivariate analysis of the agronomic parameters, our findings show that barriers to participate on local food markets are the main root of secondary problems, such as the soil fertility, sigatoka and other plagues. We conclude our article by defending a systematic policy, both from governmental and from nongovernmental agencies, to include local organic farmers on responsive food chains.

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