"Policy dismantling" na agricultura familiar: o Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) no Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The articulation of a set of public policies aimed at Brazilian family agriculture in recent years has redefined the broad role of the segment with regard to rural development. In this scenario, the Food Acquisition Program (PAA), created in 2003 under the Zero Hunger Program, stands out as an innovative policy for acting both in the economic and productive strengthening of family farmers who were outside market access, and for promoting food security for people in vulnerable conditions. Thus, the present thesis sought to investigate whether the PAA had been acting as a successful policy for rural development in Rio Grande do Norte. Given the recent cooling context of public policies, the analysis approach adopted emphasized the disruption of policy. Thus, in theoretical-analytical terms, the perspective of the discontinuity of public policy was adopted, called "policy dismantling". The theoretical contribution allowed us to verify how institutions and institutionalities are dismantled in family agriculture, conferring the reproduction of a pattern of exclusion and elevation of institutional vulnerability, which was combated with public policies. To corroborate the analysis, the methodological procedures consisted of bibliographic and documentary research, as well as the adoption of the qualiquantitative methodology. The main results confirmed the initial hypothesis that the PAA provided, in the NB, the creation of a virtuous circle in the insertion of family farmers to the markets and in the reduction of food insecurity. In addition, the institutional arrangement of the PAA allowed overcoming the reductionism of welfare actions, through the defense of the role of family farming in national food sovereignty and in the human right to adequate food. However, recently, the resources and size of the program are gradually being watered down. The result of this process is undoubtedly felt in the program's ability to meet the proposed objectives, through the adoption of an ideas that advocates the contraction of the State and its unaccountability regarding the implementation of public policies. It was argued here that public policy efforts must be continuous, sustainable and articulated, with a view to presenting satisfactory results in their different areas of intervention.