A produção de soja orgânica como uma estratégia de desenvolvimento rural: um olhar a partir da qualidade de vida

Abstract

The search for better levels of well-being and health have gained importance insofar as better comfort and consumption standards were obtained in developed countries, stimulating other countries and people to join in this search. Growing concerns over the past few decades with environmental care and greater attention to people have given greater visibility to this issue. In this context, this research aimed to analyze the self-declared health and perceived well-being of the organic and conventional soybean producers in a comparative perspective, as well as to analyze the reasons why the organic producers started this activity in an environment in which traditional agribusiness predominates. For this, the primary data were obtained through an unstructured interview with samples of soybean producers in the year 2014/2015, as well as with other stakeholders of the sector in order to enable the construction of the data collection instrument. Four dimensions of rural worker well-being were considered: human capital, income, physical well-being, and mental health of the interviewee and the pesticide applicator, in order to understand the exposure at contamination risk and health and well-being problems in both cases. The data obtained suggest a high exposure to the risk of contamination by agricultural inputs, due to the fact that there are important safety gaps due to the insufficient use of PPE (personal protective equipment), especially from the group of conventional producers because they interact with more dangerous substances, besides risks Ergonomic due the fact that the high number of reports on back pain. This exposition increases the risk of morbidity of the organic producer group due to age-related ills, since their age profile is less favorable than conventional producers age profile. Regarding the comparison between samples producers, on the one hand there were many unexpected similarities that were made explicit, such as the quality of housing and sanitation, schooling level and comfort items in the house. On the other hand, the conventional group appears to be advantageous in income, while the organic seems to be happier and more satisfied with their lifestyle. With respect to the reasons for choosing the organic production mode, the interviewees showed a strong aversion to family life interacting with the "poisons". Despite the organic activity requires a greater intensity of physical work and has hindrances due to the fact that it belongs to a small sector, there are advantages resulted from the group cohesion, such as the price paid to production and the access to more developed markets. The occurrence of negative externality due to the conventional activity of neighbors, especially to chemical drift, is highlighted. The organic producers evidenced the belief that the family life quality improved, even if the achievement of income increases did not produce the same level of conviction. Finally, the choice by the organic production appears to be a strategy of farmers to overcome difficulties in surviving conventional activity with the few resources they had available, converting the restrictive variables into differential to access an alternative consumer market.