Produtores Familiares e Estratégias Ligadas à Terra

The maintenance and/or expansion of land form the central axle along which family farming organize their livelihood and work.. This paper analyzes these producers’ strategies that are related to division of inheritance and succession, and the forms of acquisition of new areas. The survey on the characteristics of families and property was carried out by a questionnaire in 89 familiar producers of three cities of São José do Rio Preto (SP) region. Next, one third of those answering the questionnaire were interviewed in the same cities. The analysis of agrarian strategies showed a great diversity in the manner of inheritance sharing and conducting succession; although being basically supported in both processes by traditional rules they seem to follow the legal the legal rules. Regarding to acquisition strategies of more land, it was noticed that producers are able to organize complex forms of capitalization, which are centralized in bigger efforts at work and containment of expenses, besides the use of favorable public policies and customary practices. The intra-familiar arrangements and the forms of kinship cooperation also appeared as equally important to the property expansion.