Vitrine tecnológica como instrumento de inovação para a transição agroecológica

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of agroecological technological showcases as instruments of innovation and learning in the agroecological transition in Paraná, highlighting the articulation between science, local knowledge, and technology transfer. It begins with a historical contextualization of agriculture to problematize the diffusionism of the Green Revolution, highlighting its socio-environmental limitations and the processes of exclusion of family farmers. Within this framework, it defends the participatory construction of knowledge and agroecology as a scientific, practical, and political paradigm, oriented towards the redesign of agroecosystems based on diversity, soil health, the use of bio-inputs, short marketing circuits, and social justice. Based on this framework, the research problem is defined as understanding how technological showcases function as innovation and learning devices, with objectives that include characterizing and mapping the actors involved and analyzing the adoption of technologies by family farmers in the Metropolitan, Western, and Southwestern regions of the state. The justification is anchored in the advancement of organic production in Paraná, the inductive role of public policies, and the emergence of open innovation arrangements such as showcases and living labs as responses to the environmental and climate crises. Methodologically, this is a qualitative and exploratory research, developed in two stages articulated with document analysis and a multiple case study involving four showcases: CPRA/Agroecology Research Station (Pinhais), VITAL/Show Rural (Cascavel), CVT/Unioeste (Entre Rios do Oeste), and the Agroecological Systems Area/IDR (Pato Branco). Data collection combined direct observation and semi-structured interviews with 40 participants (farmers, technicians, and researchers), followed by content analysis to integrate empirical evidence and theoretical frameworks. The results indicate that the four showcases comprise a complementary arrangement of research and development, demonstration, and extension. The CPRA is configured as a state-level reference experimental station in training, bio-inputs, agroforestry systems, and environmental education. VITAL operates as a highly visible didactic-expository unit at a mega-fair, with integrated demonstrations supported by a broad inter-institutional network. The CVT/Unioeste prioritizes training and technological development in grains, cassava, weed management, and appropriate machinery, associating participatory certification and field days. In Pato Branco/IDR, certified thematic showcases are linked to short circuits and the techno-economic analysis of production systems, strengthening the link between demonstration and productive decision-making. The interviews reveal convergences around learning by doing, cooperation, motivation, and partnerships, while also highlighting tensions: while farmers emphasize the ethics of care, autonomy, and economic viability, organizers prioritize standardization, indicators, workforce qualification, and funding stability. Structural challenges persist, such as generational succession, gaps in agricultural extension services, resource instability, power asymmetries, and the risk of "protocolization" with the reduction of processes to organic checklists. Even so, the showcases are configured as niches of innovation that, when supported by public policies and multi-stakeholder governance, accelerate the diffusion of practices, reducing risks and strengthening productive, environmental, and sanitary resilience, with repercussions on the supply of healthy food. It is concluded that the technological showcases operate as socio-territorial innovation ecosystems, capable of translating technical-scientific evidence into contextualized and replicable solutions for family farming, with positive impacts on sustainability, income, and public health. For its consolidation and scaling up, institutionalization and continuous funding are recommended; the development of standardized metrics for technical-economic, ecological, and social impacts; the adoption of action-research protocols with deliberative power for farmers; integration with agricultural extension services, credit, and public procurement; and strategies for training and attracting young people with catalytic instruments. Finally, it is proposed to advance quantitative studies that measure the contribution of these showcases to the adoption of technologies and the results of agroecosystems, reinforcing their potential as a replicable model of agroecological transition in the country.