Associativism

the Experience of the Farmers in Colonia «Juan Gutiérrez» in Paysandú

Abstract

In Uruguay, since early 2000s, changes in the agricultural sector linked to the explosion of rainfed agriculture and a new boost of forest production affected the sustainability of small and medium farms. Faced with this scenario, many family farmers turn to partnership strategies to overcome their limitations of scale and improve their insertion in the market, given the highly competitive and changeable contexts of the national and international economy. In recent years, this strategy has been stimulated at national level from public bodies. Nevertheless, in practice there are disadvantages that prevent its adoption and/ or lead to the failure of its implementation. The aim of this work was to understand one of the different associative projects developed by family farmers in Uruguay, and identify the main advantages and difficulties commonly faced by this type of venture.. A case study was conducted, effecting semi-structured interviews with different actors, noting that the experience is an individual and collective learning process. It is emphasized that the success of the experience is based in the confidence level reached by the members of the associative project. It is concluded that there is a need to design collective strategies, not only to develop individual and joint competitive advantages, but as strategy of rural development.