Abstract

ENCISO CANO1*, Víctor Ramón; SALAS MAYEREGGER¹, Julio  and  ENCISO GARAY¹, Cipriano Ramón. Agrarian assets in rural family farming: case studies. Investig. Agrar. [online]. 2014, vol.16, n.1, pp.56-63. ISSN 2305-0683.

There are several studies on Paraguay´s rural family agriculture, they are from diverse perspective: typological characterization, competitiveness, limiting factors for their development, among others. No studies that address the economic-financial profitability of this type of agriculture have been identified in the specialized literature. This publication reports the results of an exploratory study that aims to create a knowledge base to serve as inputs to develop hypotheses on the topic. Six case studies covering the departments of San Pedro, Concepción and Amambay were carried out between May and July 2013. The findings show that the land is the main component (50 – 91%) of agrarian capital followed by passive agricultural investments, working capital and fixed lived capital. The importance of agricultural investment was due to the value of appliances and motorcycle, rather than the traditional components such as barns, fences and water reservoir.  Little involvement of youngster was one characteristic of the visited farms. The labor available in most cases (except one case) was from the parents, whose ages ranged from 50 to 62 for males and 41 and 55 for women. Youth involvement was observed in only one case. In general, farms do not project as a productive unit due to the lack of involvement by sons and daughters; this situation also explains the lack of investment in machinery and equipment.

Keywords : Rural Family; Agriculture,; agrarian capital,; Paraguay..

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