Peasant subordination in the production and marketing of sweet potatoes: a look from the reality of the municipality of Moita Bonita/Sergipe/Brazil

Abstract

This article is part of the results of my dissertation research on peasant subordination in the production and marketing of sweet potatoes in the municipality of Moita Bonita, in the Agreste Central region of Sergipe, Brazil. The reproduction of the peasantry is historical, considering the multiple determinations that imply the subjection of this class to the logic of profit and capital. The peasant class is forced to produce and market food that has become a commodity and, in this way, there is a vicious cycle that is demanded by the market, in which it imposes on workers their subordination to capital, reducing their autonomy in terms of working with the land and producing typical peasant crops. In this sense, the aim of this article is to analyze the subjection of the peasant class in the production and commercialization of sweet potatoes for the market, in the context of the expansion of capitalist relations in the countryside in the municipality of Moita Bonita/SE. As a result, we observed how the fractioning of land, with smallholdings, aggravates land concentration in the agrarian space, as well as the presence of a single crop, sweet potatoes, which makes it difficult to diversify other crops due to the size of the land and the capture of peasant income by the market. The research, which took a qualitative-quantitative approach, included a bibliographical survey and data from the relevant bodies, as well as semi-structured interviews. The data was investigated in the light of Historical and Dialectical Materialism, allowing us to understand the production of Sergipe's agrarian space as a simulacrum of capitalist relations, the peasant forms of social reproduction and the levels of reaffirmation of the commodity.