O empreendedor institucional e a inserção de pequenos agricultores familiares no mercado: o Projeto Agro Família

Abstract

There is a large number of public policies aimed at family farming in Brazil. Access to these policies could help farmers to better integrate into distribution channels such as supermarkets, bars, restaurants, street markets and city halls. However, a set of barriers continues to impede access to markets, such as the fierce competitive environment, greater demand for food quality and safety, increased production scale, among others. This thesis establishes two propositions. The first is that many barriers persist due to the absence of an intermediary institutionality capable of bridging the gap between the general rules of established policies and the needs of small producers. The second is that the creation of this institutionality can be carried out through institutional entrepreneurs. The New Institutional Economics was used as a theoretical framework. It is proposed that it is necessary to observe what Menard (2017) classified as meso-institutions, that is, a fundamental institutionality so that rules and rights established at a macro level, such as those established in government law programs, are interpreted and implemented in a micro level. The transformation or creation of this new institutionality can arise through the actions of entrepreneurs with the necessary resources to take advantage of the opportunities to make changes (Dimaggio;1988). To demonstrate these propositions, the case of the Agro Família Project was examined, in which the Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE), the National Rural Learning Service (SENAR) and other organizations acted with the objective of creating an institutional framework that would allow family farmers in the region of Ribeirão Preto, SP, to be included in commercialization channels, such as direct sales to consumers at street markets, restaurants, bars and municipal governments. Data were collected through participant observation, documentary analysis and interviews with 49 producers, 3 leaders of producer organizations, the Sebrae consultant responsible for serving the farmers and 24 nutritionists and/or responsible for school meals in the municipalities in the region. The data allowed identifying the barriers faced by producers and confirming both propositions. The performance of institutional entrepreneurs, such as Sebrae and Senar, allowed the overcoming of barriers and, therefore, the commercialization of products within the scope of the PNAE, in the local retail trade, in street markets and home deliveries. The role of these organizations was to build the necessary bridges to overcome obstacles, assuming a governance role in the process of eliminating barriers, where they were accepted for having social legitimacy and ability to deal with the public and private sectors. This thesis corroborates with different studies that characterize the institutional entrepreneur and the creation of new institutionalities, considering the situation of organizational fields and the existence of institutional voids as a generator of opportunities for entrepreneurial action. The study also contributes to the advancement of studies on institutional entrepreneurship in promoting changes and/or creating meso-institutions.