Processos de intervenção de programas de financiamento dirigidos a agricultores familiares: um estudo no Norte de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This study intended to analyze the operation and implementation of four loan programs directed to family producers in the north of Minas Gerais, in relation to their objectives, the intervention strategies adopted and the results obtained. More specifically, it tried to characterize the forms of intervention adopted by the programs in the communities selected, identifying the main changes and the difficulties feced by the beneficiaries as a result of the utilization of the financial resources granted. To carry out this study, one characteristic type of qualitative research was used: the Case Study, of the multicase type. The triangulation technique was applied in the collection and data analysis phases; the assessment of information was done in three municipalities in the north of Minas, during January and April of 1997. Interviews were done with producers, associations and Regional Coordinators of the different programs. Field observations and assessment of documental and bibliographical material were also done. The results suggest that, even being loan programs with very different and even contradictory motivations, interests and objectives of intervention, the delivery of credit resources has contributed to supplying, somehow, the lack of resources for the operation of the productive units. However, the effective participation of the beneficiaries and their representative entities is indispensable in all phases of the loan process so correct information and necessary preparation to optimize the use of the resources granted is guaranteed. The same way, the analysis of the methodologies adopted by the programs revealed the necessity for these programs to develop gradual intervention processes in the communities where they act upon, promoting the creation or consolidation of organizational forms that rise from the interests and necessities of the producers and in which the credit be utilized as a component within an integral development strategy and not like a 'panacea' through which production, marginalization and poverty problems suffered by the family producers are to be solved. The lack of preparation by the beneficiaries and technical assistance in defining the execution of the financed projects by the governmental agencies compromise the economical performance of the establisments, bringing the producers to investments that are not always analyzed or studied as deeply as necessary, leaving them isolated with the responsibility for the results of the execution of the investments. Therefore, the implementation of capacitation and continuous and opportune technical follow up programs proved to be of fundamental importance to guarantee an effective support of the development of the productive units commited to the realization of the investments. Finally, one can infer that the quantity of credit resources granted is not what guarantees the success in the execution of the process, but also the quality of the processes used in distributing these resources and the conception of the role of the credit itself as a pedagogic instrument, as a tool to propiciate the development of the rural sectors less favored and not as an end in itself.