Overcoming the Challenges of Sustainable Family Agriculture in Southern Brazil: Contributions to the 2030 Agenda

Abstract

Concerning sustainability and food production, efforts are made by social, political, and environmental actors to enact changes in production and consumption patterns and adopt new management models and instruments. Hunger, waste, poor distribution of food, and low diversity affect many countries, and small family farmers are abandoning their activities due to the challenges which minimize the possibilities of contemplating SDG 12. Local production and SDG 12 favor access to safe and cheaper food, thereby encouraging food security and minimizing food waste. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with the participation of local actors in 16 municipalities in southern Brazil. The study took a qualitative research approach and content analysis was used as a mode of investigation. It was then possible to provide assistance to the decision-making process of local and regional public authorities in terms of development to support sustainable production and consumption. This study highlights the contribution of family agriculture to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), specifically SDG 12. The study presents guidelines and means of implementation for a more sustainable family agriculture, as well as attributes to the challenges of the sector. With this approach, it was possible to connect the problem with the solutions, classifying them by thematic axes.

1. Introduction

Sustainable development assumes a commitment to the continuity of future generations, maintaining that it is necessary to develop in harmony with nature by taking into account the ecological limitations of the planet. Future generations need to have quality of life in a healthy environment with suitable conditions for the continuation of a fair society and, therefore, strategies are necessary for the development of solutions [1,2,3]. The solutions to many global problems, such as climate change and poverty, will depend on how projects, programs, actions, and guidelines are supplied to face these challenges. Furthermore, interventions must consider the environment and bring society together by looking for ways to improve social interactions through local councils and policies [4].

Within this context, seeking a shared global vision on progress towards a safe, fair and sustainable space for all human beings, the United Nations (UN) established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs comprise the 2030 Agenda, which serves as an action plan on ongoing issues for the planet, such as poverty, education, health, and access to water. Among the 17 SDGs, the SDG 12 focuses on sustainable production and consumption, highlighting the role of food distribution and access to local foods with family labour [5,6,7].

One of the biggest challenges is achieving global food security. For this, it is important to create partnerships with entities and institutions and have an accurate diagnosis of each region of the world. Family farming is important for this challenging task [7]. Local actors, such as farmers, produce, distribute and consume food, creating an important cycle of regional development and valorisation of local producers and products.

This work contributes to leading family agriculture to more sustainable practices, not only in the region under study but also in other global regions, by promoting the permanence of families and young people, valuing women in the countryside, and fostering food security. Given this backdrop, the aim of this paper is to provide recommendations to address the challenges of family agriculture and to present means of implementation for its promotion, considering the 2030 Agenda.

Strengthening Family Agriculture

Family farming is where the production unit is related to the family in the use of labour and through social ties of reproduction of the activity [7]. In different regions of the world, there are problems in regards to inequality (which still affects society).

The predominance of the regional development, the empowerment of local societies, and the well-being of the population is present in the definition of policies, programs, and actions for the different areas of a country’s economy, although each country has its own particular positive and/or negative characteristics [8,9].

Regional development is a multidimensional approach focused on the future, where actors are actively involved in a decision-making process coordinating efforts to integrate different types of solutions to regional problems, whether environmental, economic, or social [10,11]. Along with the increase in global population, there is a growing demand for resource, so as to ensure that present and future generations have access to food and water. Therefore, deep and transformative solutions aimed at specific and short-term actions are needed. This is one of the most challenging tasks we have ever faced.

Some regions can generate, disseminate, and exchange knowledge, taking advantage of their resources to build social cooperation networks. This has contributed to economic growth and the processes to handle in a globalized world. Regions that manage to innovate become more capable of reacting to disruptions, adapting, and responding creatively to global challenges. Furthermore, the need for resilience in some territories facing the issue of climate change highlights the importance of understanding how these regions evolve and adapt to the changes in daily life [12].

Locally grown foods contribute to reducing waste and improving people’s health, since they are fresher and have the potential to involve city dwellers in the production of their food [13]. SDG 12, as well as contributing to the supply and consumption of local food, help to reduce food waste and losses, as consumers have easy access to a quality product at an affordable price, even as the logistics of the product become more difficult.

Food waste exacerbates food insecurity and malnutrition, considering that the amount of food being wasted would be enough to feed people around the world. In this sense, there is a need to pay greater attention to the problem and seek solutions that can improve the sustainability of food systems, including projects and initiatives to reduce the amount of food lost on the planet [14]. Figure 1 exemplifies this context.

Family agriculture is an activity that includes factors from the production of food to its final consumption [7]. Among its divisions are organic production, agroindustries, and more recently urban agriculture, which has been gaining strength in search of more organic consumption and extra income. Figure 1 presents the distribution channels of each branch of family agriculture. In general, this distribution occurs through three means: rural producers’ markets, the sale of products at home, and other food markets in the municipalities. These distribution channels are important both for the supply of fresh and diversified food, and for the valuation of women and young people’s contributions to the activity, generating income and quality of life for producers. The three categories that consider production, distribution, and consumption are highlighted, emphasizing sustainable forms and access to consumers.

Figure 1 highlights the consumption of local products, organic products, and agroindustrial products. Of these categories, food from family agriculture has a known origin; there is direct contact between producer and consumer, and there is a fair price, as the food is usually local. In this way, food security is guaranteed, which is one of the main global objectives on a planet where many people are fighting for equality.

The connection between production, distribution, and consumption strengthens access to food. Generally, it is noted that the discussions are focused only on production and consumption, however, it is necessary to explore sources of distribution, access, and commercialization of food.

2. Materials and Methods

The methodological procedures of the research took into account the classification of the study, the agents involved and the study site. In the same way that the data collection instruments and the technique of analysis were presented.

This research has a qualitative character, having as its main source of information interviews and focus groups carried out with farmers in the Corede Produção region.

2.1. Study Area

The research was carried out in the region called Corede Produção, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the South Region of Brazil, where agribusiness is the main source of income. The Corede Produção region is a large producer of soy, and a soy monoculture, where other cereals have little emphasis. It is a region lacking in diversified production, where the main labour force is familiar with only one product. In this context, the creation of more sustainable actions for family agriculture, taking into account social, economic, and environmental aspects as well as production, distribution, and consumption initiatives, are fundamental to contribute to the development of the region.

Regarding the barriers mentioned by the research participants (local actors), there were climatic fluctuations, no succession of young people, no appreciation of women in the countryside, lack of manpower, no appreciation of the local product, absence of public policies, among others. In the results, the

Table 1. Sustainable Guidelines.

Axis	Challenges	Contributions	Means of Implementation
Production	Climate fluctuations	Subsidies for family farmers	Improve subsidies for small farmers in case of crop loss due to the climate.
		Resilience of family farmers	Increase farmers’ resilience through government incentives.
	Excess of pesticides	Favor organic production	Encourage the production of organic and agroecological products.
		Promote a sustainable production system	Disseminate the harmful effects of pesticides in food with greater emphasis through campaigns and institutions.
	Shortage of raw materials	Create campaigns for food reuse and processing	Value local products and promote the diversification of cultures through production of fruits and vegetables.
		Boost food production	Reuse food to prevent waste, in the same way as donating or transforming it.
		Foster biodiversity
	Rural exodus	Increase farm income	Create projects and motivate young people to produce in the field
		Generate business opportunities	Value the work of women farmers and generate greater income.
		Encourage rural activities	Anticipate scenarios from the rural exodus to avoid them.
	Hierarchy	Create “parents and children” campaigns	Promote dialogue and the commitment of young people in the field, aiming at property growth.
		Provide knowledge to parents	Bring knowledge to farmer parents motivating entrepreneurship.
		Create entrepreneurship projects
	Shortage of labor	Empower young people in the field	Value young people in the countryside with programs to diversify activities, providing opportunities and favoring all age groups.
		Empower youth with activities	Provide opportunities for young people to apply their knowledge and training in activities.
Axis	Challenges	Contributions	Means of Implementation
Commercialization	Lack of marketing points	Retake the farmers’ market	Implement or retake the Rural Producer Market in the cities.
		Stimulate street markets	Create events to sell products and strengthen PNAE (PNAE—Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (National School Food Program) is a public program of food supplementation in schools, created in Brazil in 1955) in the region.
	Lack of infrastructure at the markets	Identify a better place for markets	Require public authorities to set up marketing places or promote rural producers’ markets in cities with adequate infrastructure to supply this trade.
		Create markets in places with parking and restrooms
	Transport strikes	Create urban gardens	Encourage urban agriculture to help increase food production.
		Create institutional gardens and educational and health projects with gardens	Create community and institutional gardens and diversify production.
	Bureaucratic challenges	Minimize bureaucracy	Reduce bureaucracy for the production and marketing of food, especially organic food.
		Decrease taxes	Encourage the implementation of agro-industries with fewer taxes and greater agility.
	Food loss	Food donation projects	Encourage projects and initiatives to reduce food waste.
		Campaigns for avoiding food waste	Promote a culture of exchange and reuse of food in society.
		Partnerships with agro-industries and producers	Partner with agribusinesses and producers to use raw materials.
			Create projects and initiatives at markets, supermarkets, and greengroceries to donate food.
	Devaluation of local products	Create street markets	Value the food produced in the region through street markets.
		Create projects for local food consumption	Promote the exchange and marketing of regional foods among the community.
			Encourage schools, companies, and public authorities to consume local products.
Axis	Challenges	Contributions	Means of Implementation
Competitiveness	Difficulties with certification	Foster agribusiness	Differentiate the taxes of small, medium, and large agro-industries.
		Encourage certification	Facilitate the certification of organics for small properties.
		Create authenticity seals	Disseminate the importance of the seal for the consumption of organic products.
	Lack of technologies	Favor the purchase of technological equipment	Promote partnerships with public and private agencies to make more technology available in the field.
		Conduct training and bring technological knowledge to the field	Facilitate the purchase of technological equipment to assist in field activities.
			Train the whole family.
	Media handling	Promote healthy eating campaigns in schools	Create advertising campaigns that promote healthy eating.
		Partner with supermarkets and greengroceries to promote healthy food	Create other advertising campaigns to promote sustainable production and consumption.
	High food prices	Value local foods	Foster additional means of marketing and those which provide a fair price for food.
		Foster markets	Avoid middlemen and generate direct marketing between producers and consumers.
		Partner with farmers and food establishments
	Lack of viability in organics	Favor organic food production	Potentialize consumption of organic products through markets by disseminating information with greater strength in entities and institutions.
		Promote the distribution of organics	Create projects enabling the production of organics in cities.
		Disseminate the benefits of organic foods to the population
		Promote urban gardens Focus on agroecology and more sustainable production systems

presents the main contributions and means of implementation for the mentioned challenges.

Figure 2 shows the municipalities where data collection was performed. From among twenty-one municipalities that are part of the regional limit, local actors, social movements, and institutions linked to the activity of family agriculture in sixteen municipalities were investigated.

2.2. Data Collection Instrument and Actors Involved

To collect the data, twenty-seven interviews and four focus groups were carried out. From the local actors, it was sought to learn about the challenges and needs of the sustainable production, distribution, and consumption of food in the region, as related to family agriculture. Figure 3 shows the methodological steps followed.

The focus groups were held with rural women, young farmers, agribusiness managers and family farmers, who were contacted via email for invitation and confirmation. Fifteen participants were invited to each of the four focus groups held. The choice of group and setting were based on the recommendation of [15], who suggests involving those with a strong perception of the subject, and of [16], who indicate a place that is well-organized and has easy access to conduct the meetings. The interviews were carried out with different actors from the region who are part of the activity, giving a broader look at the research topic, as well as the institutions and entities that participated.

2.3. Data Analysis Technique

The data analysis technique comprised two steps:

(a)

Proposal of sustainable contributions to the region (production, distribution, and consumption): Following the content analysis techniques proposed by [17], transcripts were made of the interviews and focus groups carried out, in which the interviewees identified intervention needs. Based on these, actions were proposed to promote sustainable production and consumption in the region, as related to the model of family farming. All improvements identified for the process were considered in this phase, which is essential for the teams awareness and engagement in the change process.

(b)

Means of implementation to achieve the guidelines (production, distribution, and consumption): It is important to work together with institutions and local actors to build discussions related to local and regional sustainable development, with the aim of meeting the goals established by the 2030 Agenda (specifically the SDG 12). This will assist in addressing the major global problem that is the shortage, poor distribution, and lack of diversity of food. The means of implementation sought were intended to assist in practical projects and initiatives that could support people and the environment.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Views of Local Actors

Through the technique of content analysis, encoding and categorization of the results (challenges) were performed. The most mentioned points within each applied category are presented and discussed.

The top categories (axes) were defined a posteriori and served as contributions for the elaboration of sustainable guidelines. These categories were production, commercialization, competitiveness, motivation/economy, consumption/education, and social/human capital. It is possible to generate global contributions in the agricultural activity aimed at family agriculture. The following excerpt is from a young farmer.

“One of the biggest challenges that we face, I believe because we have an Italian culture or heritage where the saying is that ‘the father is the head of the household’…in my case, is the issue of not being able to manage the property and the production here” (28 years old, agricultural technician, farmer).

Rural families, as well as young people from the countryside, are undergoing transformations in terms of the values of each generation, which are creating uncertainties about the inheritance of properties and the future of children and young people in the region [18,19].

When we mention food production, it is important to highlight the distribution and marketing of food. Generally, this stage is carried out at municipal producers’ markets, which value local products and producers. However, some obstacles are still visible, as another farmer pointed out.

“Mainly more infrastructure, and also the bureaucratic challenges that are so many...there are complicated laws that make the regularization process time-consuming and this slows down the process, and also implies speeding up the marketing of products” (40 years, high school, beekeeper).

In this context, the agents involved address a problem that is patriarchy, as well as succession issues in rural family businesses and the challenges to commercialize agricultural products.

Markets play an important role for producers and consumers, although they have their own difficulties and challenges. A portion of market consumers seeks lower prices and direct contact with producers [20,21,22]. The entities linked to the studied activities also reported several challenges worth mentioning, and an agriculture secretary analysed some outcomes that occurred in the activity.

“Other challenges to be mentioned are related to the need to purchase equipment/implements to increasingly encourage family agriculture, due to the fact that although we have a range of these, we still lack enough to leverage the initiative” (28 years old, agronomist, secretary of agriculture).

Agribusinesses contribute to increasing the income of small farmers by benefiting from industrialized products, the work for which is generally performed by family labour. A chemist mentioned another relevant challenge.

“One of the biggest challenges that agro-industries present is in relation to the large companies that settle in small regions. These large companies have a much greater purchasing power and produce in greater quantity; consequently, they are able to add a much lower value to the products produced. It is worth remembering that these large companies do not support small producers who have small production and agro-industries highly value this type of producer” (29 years old, chemist).

Universities are part of the activity through the education and sustainable knowledge they provide. However, though some farmers are in the classroom, there are still many difficulties at universities in showing the potential to improve quality of life, income, and opportunities. A teacher contributed to the discussion with the following excerpt:

“University doesn’t get you 100% ready for the market, but it opens your eyes, gives you directions, shows you where to look, with whom to talk, where the opportunities are, what is available in the market today. So, I believe that one of the university’s challenges is to show that education is an investment, not a cost” (32 years old, teacher and business manager).

At this point, the agents involved emphasize the need to acquire agricultural implements to encourage food production, as well as the competition of small agro-industries with larger companies in the sector in terms of adding value to products. Another factor mentioned is the university’s challenges in relation to knowledge as a cost and not as an investment for the sector.

Several subjects are addressed in relation to the research topic in areas such as administration, management, agronomy, education, economics, and law. The authors of [23] report that one of the greatest undertakings is to introduce education about sustainability into the curriculum of universities and expand into other educational systems, promoting the reduction of inequalities, idealizing smaller production setups, and focusing on reuse of materials and recycling. Some progress has been made on these issues, but there are still challenges to be met.

3.2. Proposals with Contributions and Means of Implementation

By performing content analysis of the transcripts, the ideas were identified to enhance the region in terms of family agriculture and means of implementation, which are the basis for carrying out these actions. The content analysis presented the challenges of family farming in the region under study, punctuating some categories and their frequencies. In this way, this technique explored the weaknesses of the activity and in the sequence the drivers to promote and maximize the potential in the region are presented. Based on the challenges mentioned by the interviewees, Table 1 illustrates possible contributions and means of implementation aimed at each axis that guide the subjects addressed through themes.

Through the results presented in Table 1, it is possible to see that several challenges are not only focused on the Brazilian region, but might be considered in a global context. Although the regions have unique particularities, in some aspects they share the same challenges, managing to minimize them with the same drivers. Each axis is presented with social, environmental, and economic themes in the same way as the challenges. The means of implementation are extra contributions to facilitate the process of practical initiatives, make the population rethink practical projects, and seek greater public involvement.

The guidelines conduct the continuous improvement of the activity, helping in practice through sustainable drivers and easily accessible means of implementation. Among the main commitments is the purpose of defining differentiated public policies, as the sector has shown strong resilience in promoting regional food security.

In recent years, much of the international dialogue has focused on the problems of developing and underdeveloped countries. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and a combination of efforts, partnerships were renewed in order to standardize processes that will bring about the achievement of the SDGs [5,24]. In this sense, it is important to implement practical actions and guidelines to contribute to this vast global project.

The priorities of this project must be determined by society, with the adoption of new behaviour and the recovery of collective social interests, encompassing a set of changes in terms of production and consumption. In addition, a set of specific goals is needed in order to compose a well-defined action plan and enhance the prospects for the future [7]. The 2030 Agenda is characterized as transformational, creating a set of global priorities for sustainable development which encompasses people, planet, partnerships, peace, and prosperity [7]. As a scientific study, the results contribute to the advancement of science and its applications that aim to achieve sustainable development.

4. Conclusions

The aim of this paper is to provide recommendations that will address the challenges of family agriculture and present means of implementation for its promotion. In addition, it seeks to support the 2030 Agenda with sustainable guidelines for family agriculture, since not only the universities and their research, but also society with its unique status can be part of this context and contribute to it.

The guidelines were developed in parallel with the means of implementation to make them accessible to family agriculture. Taking into account the main problems related to food security, challenges, and needs in a region, the study contributes these guidelines so that other global regions can also foster activity and enhance the production of more sustainable food production, distribution and consumption, thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda and global food security.

Responsible production, distribution, and consumption aim to maximize opportunities by helping to combat poverty and contributing to food security, and serve as a parameter to measure the education of a population.

Environmental education is becoming urgent since society is increasingly consumerist and less sustainable. It is necessary to disseminate the theme and the importance of this alliance (sustainable production, distribution, and consumption) globally.

Through the investigation, an important finding was discussed. In addition to the challenges of production and commercialization, the competitiveness axis was mentioned by the participants through the lack of technology, the influence of the media, the high price of food, and the lack of viability in production of the organics. In this sense, there is also a concern to compete in the agricultural sector (family businesses) and to facilitate economic, bureaucratic, and technological factors.

There are many discussions about partnerships, with the research findings, future perspectives are linked to compete (dispute) in the market, taking into account the particularities of each family business. This discussion especially regards to the means of implementing the guidelines proposed as an alternative for competitiveness.

Finally, the needs and perspectives of sustainable family agriculture in the Corede Produção region have proven to be linked to a global context, and for this reason, the guidelines proposed by this study may also be adaptable to other regions. Science provides more sustainable societies, enabling the increase and quality of food production.