Estratégias reprodutivas baseadas em diversidade no campesinato amazônico

Abstract

This research aims to examine the strategic meanings that various degrees and forms of diversification take on, in contrast with specialized forms, as observed in representative Amazonian peasant groups from traditionally agricultural areas of the region. To this end, an analysis was conducted of different strategies involving diversity versus specialization and the probabilities of their occurrences, their economic logic, and the forms they take. The empirical basis included data from interviews conducted in 345 family units in the northeastern Pará and metropolitan Belém mesoregions, covering 15 municipalities. The methodology considered the stratification of the sample into degrees of family development, area groups and available work, and groups of reproductive efficiency and diversity, with reproductive efficiency measured from the proxy of average rural income per equivalent worker.The allocation of observed and expected frequencies of families regarding their efficiency and use of productive diversity in different structural contexts of land and labor showed that, in general, these families seek to diversify their production, even if they achieve lower reproductive efficiency. Agriculture was the activity with the greatest participation in the average rural family income of families that use diversification, and this strategy resulted in a higher average than families that use productive specialization. Equivalent worker and reproductive efficiency variables are statistically significant in explaining the average rural income of these families. However, average area and diversity are intrinsically related and should be more deeply analyzed.