Ecological-based production systems: re-localization and reactivation of the rural space in the northern coast of the Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The banana cultivation is configured as the most expressive commercial production of
the Northern Coast Micro-region of Rio Grande do Sul. Such cultivation presents two
different groups of systems, which are based on distinct agricultural perspectives:
conventional and ecological. In this paper, we try to understand the economical
performance and the technical operation of that cultivation system and how it is
producing the reactivation of its rural space. Thus we present a comparative diagnosisanalysis
of the main production systems found in the area. Such analysis was performed
taking in account the Mazoyer and Roudard approach, and is also based on
embeddedness, as seen by Murdoch, Marsden, Banks and Kirwan. As a result, six
production systems were analyzed. In general, the technical indexes show that the
ecologic cultivation achieves a relatively higher economic and productive efficiency.
Finally, we can perceive that some key-characteristics of the ecological based
agriculture are focused on the production of differenced food, tradition and in the food
re-socialization or re-localization capability, and they give a new meaning to the place.