Family Farming and Social and Solidarity Economy Enterprises in the Amazon: Opportunities for Sustainable Development

Abstract

A research gap in the scientific literature has arisen concerning the challenge faced by actors who formulate public policies on the compatibility between economic activities and sustainable development in the Amazon. The main question that guided this study was whether the organizations of the social and solidarity economy (SSE), in the form of family farming cooperatives and associations, are sufficiently consolidated in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. To achieve the intended objective, the authors used the ArcGIS Pro 10.8 software with an exploratory analysis of spatial data (AEDE). Specifically, the mapping clusters tool was used to present and discuss the distribution of establishments and enterprises in a municipality. The database was the “2017 Agricultural Census” from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the most recent official government data available. Establishments and enterprises of family farming in the 772 municipalities of the Legal Amazon with credit access in a period between August 2017 and February 2019 were selected for analysis. We confirmed the hypothesis that SSE projects are essential to achieve sustainability in the Amazon. In addition, this study suggests that this model can be an essential alternative to support public policies for the sustainable development of the biome.