Sustainability of PRONAF Loans for Family Farming

Abstract

The paper analyzes how the issue of sustainability is reflected in the design and incorporation of public policies on rural credit in Brazil. The research used a qualitative approach in order to understand the meaning that social actors give to the idea of sustainability, how they interpret their own experiences and face conflicting situations generated around the subject. Its theoretical and methodological focus was based on the neo-institutionalist approach called “three Is”, and takes as an empirical basis the functioning of rural credit policies present in the Contested Midwest Territory of Santa Catarina, with emphasis on the National Strengthening Program for Family Farming (Pronaf). It seems that the incorporation of sustainability will include the general guidelines of the Pronaf, but this conceptual breakthrough hardly translates into practical results at the establishments of small farmers and their social and economic organizations. Such findings indicate that there is still a long way to go for the idea of sustainability to be fully incorporated by Pronaf, reorienting their operational standards and the behavior of the actors towards sustainable development.