Generational succession in family agriculture

value guidelines and decision making

Abstract

The article seeks to portray particularities that permeate the decisions of family farmers in the municipality of Frederico Westphalen, located in the northwest region of Rio Grande do Sul. The generating theme of the investigation is generational succession, from the point of view of decision theory and value orientations, listing the different factors that influence successors (young people) and successors (farmers responsible for the property) in this process. To achieve this purpose, in addition to bibliographic and documental analyzes on the subject and its particularities, a questionnaire was applied to 50 young people and 50 farmers, seeking to understand the decision making directions of these actors on succession. The collected data were tabulated with the statistical support of the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) program, generating intersections and relevant information about the topic and its relations with the future of family farms. The study classifies these young people and farmers within Gasson's (1973) value orientations: instrumental, social, expressive and intrinsic. Comparing the orientations of farmers and young people, there is an important difference in perception, through variables that influence the decision-making process of the actors and their perceptions and value orientations.