PLURIACTIVITY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Abstract

In this article, its author analyses the importance of family agriculture for the development of Brazilian rural areas, paying attention to the South Region of Brazil. The author analyses, firstly, the notions of "part-time farming" and "pluriactivity", and linkes each one of them to the different debates on farming sector along time. He shows that whereas the notion of "part time farming" could be linked to the phase where the modernization paradigm was dominant, the "pluriactivity" is a notion linked to the current debate on multifunctionality. Secondly, he analyses the process of farming modernization in Brazil in the sixties, and its effects of social exclusion on small farmers. Finally, he analyses the relevance of family agriculture in the present process of rural development in the Southern region in Brazil, and the importance of pluriactivity on the dynamization of rural areas.