BOTTLENECKS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND THE WAY OUT - THE CASE OF CURITIBA'S METROPOLITAN AREA BRAZIL

This research analyzes the main factors that affect organic agriculture’s development in Curitiba’s metropolitan area (CMA), Brazil. It seeks to understand the interactions among these factors that interfere in the sector’s consolidation. Organic agriculture, despite its technical, environmental and social viability, is not showing improvement in people’s life quality, because of its small and irregular advances until now. The methodology strategy was composed of three stages. First of all, an exploratory phase, in which data were gathered from literature analysis and from open interviews. After that, field work was carried out, in individual and group activities, with representatives from many segments of organic agriculture in the region. The CMA was divided into two systems to show the two major realities. ‘Campo Largo’s system’ was composed by farmers which sell their products at fairs (short chain). They carry out participatory certification and generally receive little support from local public administration. The second system, ‘Colombo’s system’, was composed by farmers which sell their products to supermarkets (long chain). Certification is done by external auditing and farmers receive medium to high support derived from governmental policies. The final phase comprehended participative observations skills and was carried out with semi-structured interviews and focal groups. Research results indicate that the services supported by public resources show limited results and policies are disarticulated. Thus, current policies do not effectively support organic farmers and farmers transitioning to organic agriculture. In marketing terms, consumers find it difficult to access organic food, mainly due to market placement, price and awareness. The farmers establish prices through non-technical criteria which increase consumer’s difficulties. This paper proposes a new form of farmer and consumer organization titled Livelihood Collective which tests new trade patterns that point towards a wide field of research.