Campesinity and agricultural business in Mucugê, Chapada Diamantina-Bahia

Abstract

The article deals with the territorial configurations of Mucugê, Chapada Diamantina - Bahia, in the context of rural territories where hydro-agribusiness and peasantry coexist. We tried to reflect on the multiplicity of territorialities, sometimes conflicting in the local reality. The methodology is based on the discussion of theoretical references concerning the agrarian question, agribusiness, peasantry and agrobiodiversity. We sought to systematize secondary data related to the social conditions of life of the local population, in addition to the elaboration of mappings and field surveys in loco, which involves dialogical observations and experiences. In reading the reality in question, it was found that agribusiness transformed the territories of Mucugê, imposing capitalist logics of work on the land, however, alternative forms of work and life based on peasant sociability still persist. The local socioeconomic indexes reflect the social contradictions intrinsic to hydro-agribusiness, in which it was possible to prove that the enunciated wealth and development proclaimed by hydro-agribusiness defenders have rarely contributed to the improvement of the living conditions of the local population. The creation of territorialities by the subjects of peasant family farming constitutes a strategy for social reproduction and permanence in the countryside.