Actions of the behavior of the family farmer in the face of innovations in the agricultural sector

Abstract

Given the rapid growth of agribusiness in recent decades, the family farmer has shown to be resilient in this context. With a population of 10.1 million people working in family farming (IBGE, 2017), the sector is constantly adapting, changing production systems with the insertion of innovation (FERNANDES et al., 2018). This behavior has attracted the attention of the scientific community, which is the reason for carrying out this study. With the objective of analyzing the actions of the family farmer's behavior in the face of innovations in the agricultural sector, the study of an applied nature, with a qualitative and quantitative approach, of an exploratory type and based on empirical research, analyzed ten interviews through the analysis of content applied through a script semi-structured and 174 questionnaires applied by the innovative behavior instrument (Balconi et al., 2022) analyzed using structural equations (Smart-PLS) and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). As a result, it identified leadership behaviors, search for information, search for support, cooperation, adaptation to infrastructure and insufficient workforce, search for new markets, diversification of products and ownership, opportunities, resilience, management and policy support public. On the proposed structural model, it is effective and supported by the confirmation of the hypotheses and, therefore, it can be considered to verify the innovative behavior of family farmers. In this study, an innovative behavior of high to very high intensity and oriented towards external contacts was verified; and participatory leadership showed the lowest intensity. Therefore, producers are more likely to exchange information to optimize production, overcome infrastructure and labor difficulties to optimize innovative results such as the insertion of management systems or the search for new markets or product diversification.