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This paper aims to demonstrate the existence of viable margins for the construction of rural development projects that take advantage of the small gaps in the configuration of the current economic system. The paper supports the idea that policies can serve as instruments for democratic appropriation of the State and markets, favoring the social reproduction of family farming, a central segment from the perspective of development herein adopted. The methodology employed relied on theoretical reflection and interviews with farmers, extension workers and public managers in the municipality of Pelotas-RS, Brazil. From the analyses of the empirical setting of this work and other spatial contexts, the paper discusses examples where the use of public institutions and markets led to advances or mitigated problems faced by historically deprecated segments, such as family farming in Brazil. This demonstrates the potential of local contexts to act as protagonists in coping with a structurally imposed unequal logic. The study concludes that there is no need to break with the economic system to then pursue the construction of future alternatives, and the multiple open possibilities in places may be a starting point for the construction of new projects towards the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to bring the theory of reciprocity closer to the rural networks analysis methodology, in the context of endogenous rural development in mountain environments. The main idea behind the concept of rural networks is to give a new meaning to the expression 'rural development'. This re-signification arises from the observation of the diversity of territories and populations that exist in regions that are making the border between rural and urban increasingly invisible. Moreover, from this finding, the authors identify the need for a new methodology that can, at the same time, look at the spaces through the concept of networks and think rural development as something beyond mercantile exchanges. The proposal to approach the theory of reciprocity is to better understand, and hence justify, a differentiated look within social organizations, their functioning and the interconnections that can coexist within groups. It was found, in both theories, points of convergence; one of them is to make increasingly the formulation, application and analysis of public policies. A second point is the perception of spaces from the concept of social networks. Thus, it is in the junction of very close thoughts that the article proposes the analysis of these new forms of territories occupation, especially those that are in mountainous regions and are destined to the rural production in sustainable bases, with the objective of contributing with the construction of knowledge in the scenarios of public policies and endogenous rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eating is an everyday exercise that beyond the ingestion / incorporation of food reveals human action in society, connecting identities and differences, to questions of gender, to socialization and to nutrition itself. However, eating has been moving increasingly away from that association, evidenced by the observation that certain foods begin to dance in the global food market and come to occupy a place of privilege. This movement is part of a path that aims at the homogenization and standardization, not only of food, but also of the bodies produced by this food. On the other hand, many "ancestral" and / or traditional foods and their legacies of food practices are drawn from their local realities and away from their referential matrix. In this paper, we wonder why only a small number of foods (soy, corn and wheat, milk, and beef) are chosen as the basis of the human diet. How do we get to this food stage? And, is it possible to speak in terms of a "food coloniality"? (Herrera Miller, 2016). We begin arguing that development and its devices (agribusiness, transgenics, etc.) are enterprises that make up the modernity / coloniality of Western rationality. A second step is to evaluate if the set of practices and knowledge involved in agribusiness and food production originates from the commodities point to a "food coloniality". The work will be based on data from the literature and some empirical data from the research for doctoral thesis of one of the authors in the Bolivian Amazon where you can see how in this scenario re-existence practices emerge that are located on the margins of the modern system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is intended to analyze the actions of three programs for family agriculture support in national level: the National Program for Strengthening of Family Agriculture (PRONAF), the Program for Acquisition of Foods (PAA) and the National Program for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas (PRONAT), by means of distinct strategies, namely: granting of subsidized credit, acquisition of farming and livestock production and fomentation of actions to develop the territory. However, their operation presents several issues, which renders it difficult to accomplish their objectives. For this paper, a survey was carried out on data from official sources and documents. Thus, we could observe that, despite the relevance of these three public policies in the fomentation of rural development, family farmers are still facing difficulties to commercialize their production, to access credit and are also affected by lack of technical assistance. Another problem observed was the priority given to modern agriculture, even in actions of support to family agricultures, as occurs with PRONAF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is a reflection about the main services developed by the Institute for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and Forestry of the State of Amazonas (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Agropecuário e Florestal Sustentável do Estado do Amazonas - Idam). It aims to analyze the importance of the Idam for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural - Ater) in Amazonas state, identifying how the provision of such services is carried out under the perspective of the National Policy of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Política Nacional de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural - Pnater). We observe in the theoretical approach that there is a lack of financial incentive and many limitations of the institute, which leads to major problems. The Idam has important role to the development of family farming in the Amazonas state, since they have mediated access to the public policy to these farmers. The Ater services in Brazil and in Amazonas state changed considerably after the implementation of Pnater. Despite the focus of the Ater in the state still be predominantly diffusionist, we observe an efforts of the entity to incorporate the focus of the new Ater. So it is possible to infer that the extensionists from the entity have worked within the limitations as facilitators of the rural development process, helping to improve the lives of farmers of the Amazonas state through the services developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of multifunctionality suggests that agriculture provides to society productive, ecological, and cultural functions. Public policies that promote a combination of different functions can improve multifunctional landscape performance. The objective of this paper is to present an evaluation method of multifunctional landscapes based on values systems of local stakeholders that can be used to support the development of public policies for rural development. This method used a geographic information system to identify the elements present in the study area located in the city of Joinville, Santa Catarina, between 2010 and 2012. From interviews with 53 people were assigned values for 15 descriptors representing the productive, ecological and cultural features of each element identified. These values were weighted considering the percentage of area occupied by each element and its form index. The weighted results showed the best multifunctional performance with the Water Resources opposed to Agroecosystems. The proposed method has advantages because it allows: a) quantifying the intuitive perceptions facilitating the interpretation of complex situations, b) assess rural landscapes at different scales, c) understand the performance of each function and the balance between the functions of the landscape. But, it also has weaknesses: a) is not objective, since it derives from viewpoints b) responses may get interference related to the attitude of the researcher c) the results have limited validity in time and space, d) commitment of respondents defi ne the validity of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]