THE FAMILY AGRICULTURE IN A CITY IN THE ALTO VALE DO JEQUITINHONHA, MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

This research aimed to characterize the family farmers´s profile in a county in Alto Vale
do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais. Some rural communities were visited to identify
properties with some food production, in which a structured questionnaire was applied to
a responsible for them. Sixty-one 61 farmers were interviewed and the most of them
living at their own home with good conditions, however in unsatisfactory environmental
conditions. In the rural area, the raise chickens was the most frequent (90.16%), while
75.41% of producers reported having home vegetable garden, and the 80.32% use only
organic fertilizer. The most respondents (91.80%) have never received any technical
guidance on growing plants. Despite the presence of plantations and/or livestocks, most
producers do not usually market their products. We conclude that the production system
was characterized by low or no use of technology, following a production model
conventionally classified as traditional, with much of the production focused only family consumption. It is a virtually independent of external inputs, closely related to environmental factors such as climate and soil type.