Is bankruptcy failure? The case of the Associação dos Produtores Alternativos de Ouro Preto do Oeste, State of Rondônia, Brazil

Abstract

The paper studies the bankruptcy of the Alternative Producers Association (APA) in Ouro Preto do Oeste, State of Rondônia, Brazil, by identifying the relations between the territory actors and analyzing their own interpretive frame. After a brief history of the Integrated Colonization Project (PIC) in Ouro Preto do Oeste, we describe the social origin of the settlers, their political culture and social capital as well as the logic of the institutions engaged in the projects' management. The relations between the different institutional actors are presented as a connection of multilevel social-ecological systems (local, regional, national and international). The paper intends to show the discrepancy between the mere economic logic of the supporting institutions and the APA producers' aspirations. Our conclusion is that the bankruptcy may have been caused by two interconnected factors: the lack of trust of APA's farmers towards agricultural support agencies (Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira, Agência de Defesa Sanitária Agrosilvopastoril do Estado de Rondônia, Empresa de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural) and the failure of the State and the Municipality to act in the multi-level network above mentioned, which could have been a mediator amongst the different aspirations. Finally, our paper discusses the notion of 'failure' associated to bankruptcy.

Keywords

• Agrarian syndicalism
• Producers association
• Social capital
• Social networks
• Productive innovations
• Rondônia