The drudgery agricultural work of peasant women from the perspective of concrete totality

Abstract

This article presents results of research carried out in four municipalities in the Southwest of Paraná, with peasant women from the Peasant Women's Movement (MMC) and the agroecological ATER technique, with the aim of identifying elements that make agricultural work difficult for peasant women and ways to reduce it. With this, we seek to emphasize that it is necessary to take into account the issue of the drudgery of agroecological work, so that we can advance in a food sovereignty project.. The research was carried out based on bibliographical research, semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation. Studies show that difficult agricultural work has been one of the main causes of phenomena such as the lack of rural succession, an increase in land rentals and a decrease in the supply of diversified foods. On the other hand, the hardship of agricultural work is not only due to the lack of machines/equipment, but also due to the emptying of the countryside, the end of communities, ecological imbalances and climate change, and also due to the lack of research and technologies, machines and equipment adapted to regional realities and needs to facilitate work in production, collection, processing, etc. Therefore, this study emphasizes how the complexity of the problem investigated requires that its analysis be carried out from a territorial perspective and the concrete totality, pointing out how Milton Santos' theoretical and methodological contributions can be fruitful in moving forward in these discussions.