A New Paradigm of Ater Agroecological Founded on the Principle of Cooperation as Assumption of Endogenous Development

Abstract

The issue of the diffusionist model of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Ater) brought strong impacts to family farmers, the environment and society as a whole, which provoked reactions in the search for other alternatives and, as a result, debate on the agroecological Ater model, consequently the decentralized Ater networks, associativism, and as a background the sustainable rural development. Historically, rural economic elites have always imposed their interests to the detriment of small rural producers. Ater's initial milestone in the country begins with US support in the midst of the cold war, with the objective of inserting farmers into the capitalist market for inputs, machinery and financing, in addition to the post-war geopolitical alignment interest. Ater went through the next periods with the prescription of technological packages and the green revolution. With the redemocratization in the 1980s and liberal policies, rural extension was no longer a priority, nor was it government policy, becoming state government programs without federal resources. During this period, several social tensions arose and the emergence of effective actions by unions, associations, NGOs and cooperatives proposing a new model of rural development, until the period of struggles of the representations of family producers to implement the National Policy for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (PNATER). After a brief period of structuring Ater with a focus close to the needs and interests of family farmers, whose compass was the implementation of an AgroecologicalAter, there is currently a systematic effort to materially and symbolically deconstruct the achievements of this segment of producers together partner institutions of the Federal Government, by rural elites who mobilized in defense of their interests. What remains from now on, therefore, is to follow a path of political struggle that should never be abandoned with a focus on cooperation / associativism, networking and solidarity economy based on an agroecological land as an instrument of endogenous territorial development, particularly for sustainable rural development in its multidimensions. Therefore, the modest reflections exposed in this article stimulate the fundamental exercise that portrays a process of enlightenment in real life and the practice of struggles and conquests of family farmers.