How is agriculture sustained? following farmers from the field to the market. A case study of olive oil in a mediterranean region
- Autores: Ana Moragues Faus
- Directores de la Tesis: Dionisio Ortiz Miranda (dir. tes.), Eladio Vicente Arnalte Alegre (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de València ( España ) en 2011
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: José María García Álvarez-Coque (presid.), Luis Alfonso Camarero Rioja (secret.), Maria João Canadas (voc.), Terry Marsden (voc.), Ada Cavazzani (voc.)
- Materias:
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- Resumen
Rural areas have undergone significant changes in the last decades as a consequence of profound social, economic and political changes. In the case of some Mediterranean rural areas, these processes have been related to the intensification of urban-rural relationships (based mainly on the improvement of transport linkages, the arrival of new foreign immigrants or the rise of new demands towards these areas). These processes of change have influenced the dynamics of agrarian activity which has transformed in diverse ways. These issues (rural change and the role of agriculture in this change) have inspired a rich international academic literature in the last two decades. Furthermore, some of these contributions have attempted to develop proposals of rural development models and give guidance to public policies in order to promote such development. The understanding of the transformations of agriculture in the light of broader processes of change constitutes precisely the research problem which this study addresses through a comparative analysis of three municipalities located in a rural area of the Region of Valencia (Alto Palancia County). The sequential research questions of this investigation are: What are the processes of change in the area under study (in economic and social terms, and particularly in relation to agriculture)? How agrarian change processes interrelate with broader rural or regional dynamics through four spheres of change (food markets, new economic activities, agrarian labour force and value of land)? Which are the strategies of agrarian actors (farmers and cooperatives) in relation to farm management and labour organization and qualification and commercialisation of agrarian products? And finally, how is agriculture sustained in this type of rural area and what theoretical, analytical and political implications can be drawn from these reproduction mechanisms? In order to answer these questions, an actor oriented approach was undertaken to design the research, focusing on the agrarian actors strategies. This approach focuses on the role that agrarian actors play in shaping change processes but also on how context conditions actors and at the same time is transformed by those actors, resulting in the heterogeneity of the strategies undertaken. The research has tackled three case studies, located in the same rural area but presenting differences that allow drawing out comparative conclusions. This comparison has also benefitted from the use of the concept of territorial embeddedness as a theoretical and analytical tool. The inductive approach is underpinned in the most part by qualitative research, although quantitative information has been also used to enlighten the processes of change and contribute to the triangulation of data. The core primary data was collected through 42 semi-structured in depth interviews with diverse actors (primarily key informants, agrarian cooperatives and farmers).
The results of this study show the mechanisms that sustain agriculture in this type of Mediterranean area, characterised by low-intensity small size holdings managed mainly by part-time farmers. This research reveals the role of interdependencies among actors, particularly in relation to labour and farm management where part-time farmers that outsource farm works, real farmers that act as agricultural contractors and cooperatives that mediate among both of them, constitute a network of interrelations where social and territorial embeddedness of actors play a key role. These interdependencies are also paramount in explaining another of the main processes of agrarian change in the area, the development of new quality schemes for olive oil (principal agrarian product). The tools selected from the literature review on Alternative Food Networks have revealed the different processes of quality construction, showing the interests and tensions that emerge through those contested processes and the governance mechanisms that regulate them. Finally, these results also allow discussion of recent policy proposals in the European context revolving around the Common Agricultural Policy and Quality Food Policy.
