Transcript Vasquez-Leon-718-718_ppt

The CapiiBary Cooperative: A
collective struggle to reverse the
rural exodus
Marcela Vásquez-León
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology
Latin American Studies
Key Question
Do cooperatives have the potential to alter the
unfavorable context of power in which small rural
producers in Latin America must operate and survive?
Smallholders
There are an estimated 15 million family farms in Latin
America occupying about 400 million hectares
•Around 10 million subsistence farms that provide neither
adequate incomes nor food security and are part of diversified
livelihood strategies of mostly poor households;
• around 4 million farms that have a broader asset base and are
integrated into local markets but face significant environmental
and institutional constraints;
•about a million smallholder farms with adequate assets and
supporting institutional contexts
Even though smallholders play an exceedingly important role
in the supply of domestic markets, smallholder agriculture …
•Seems not to usher the necessary conditions to compete in
these ever-growing export markets;
•It remains a repository of rural poverty;
•The urban, non-agricultural sectors have not been able to
absorb the outflow of rural labor in ways that would permit a
transfer into the urban middle class
The Cooperative Model
Economic
advantages
(economies of
scale, credit,
etc.
Participation
blind to social
class, gender,
or
race/ethnicity
Co-ops as part of
larger social
movements that seek
structural
transformation
Democratic
Decision
Making that
is critical and
reflective
Holistic
version of
well-being
(improved ed.,
health,
respect, etc.)
Comprehensive
Methodological Approach
 Comparative approach (different
cooperatives in several countries)
 Analysis of multiple contexts
 Sensitive to the historical dimensions of
the development process of each
cooperative.
Paraguay: social indicators
(World Bank 2010)
1. The most agrarian country in
Latin America. More than 45%
of the population lives in rural
areas.
2. Highest annual population
growth rate in Latin America at
2.45 %
Land distribution, 2000
3. Social spending amounts to 6%
of the GDP in comparison to an
average of 11.9 % for Latin
America.
4. 60% of agricultural producers
have less than 10 ha of land
% of total
Land size
> 5 has
40.0
5 - 20 has.
43.2
20 - 100 has.
12.7
100 -has. or more
4.1
Total
100.0
Total number of
holdings
(307,221)
Paraguay Historical Context
Agrarian Development strategy: Alfredo Stroessner (1954 –1989)
1. Internal colonization project w/out institutional support
(infrastructure, credit, land titles, etc.)
2. Opening of the agricultural frontier to large producers,
particularly Brazilians
3. Result: structural inequality, repression of peasant
organizations, and exclusion of small producer from the
benefits of agricultural growth
Case Study: CapiiBary Cooperative
Thank you!