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Getting It Right in Rural Development Initiatives: The Importance of Livelihood Assets in Commercializing Family Farm Production in Brazil

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Abstract

The importance of markets in promoting rural development points to the need to identify the most relevant capital for the commercialization of family farm production. We seeks to verify the extent to which livelihood assets help family farmers commercialize their production through research among 125 family farmers settled in agricultural lands redistributed by the government during land reform, in the Federal District, Brazil. Data were collected in the field using a structured form in the Likert scale format and assessed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). We show that livelihoods have a positive and significant influence on commercialization, and that human and social capital are the major contributors to the commercialization of family farm production. Our findings show the need to reinforce public policies focused on training of farmers in market opportunities and the promotion of a collective organization aimed at fostering commercialization as a rural development strategy.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Federal Institute of Brasília, those settled in agricultural lands redistributed by the land reform in the Federal District and the Company of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension of the Federal District for supporting this research.

Funding

Partial financial support was received from Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Brasília.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Brasília – IFB, Federal University of Goiás – UFG, DF 480, Setor de Múltiplas Atividades, Gama/DF, Brasilia, 72429-005, Brazil

    David Frederik da Silva Cavalcante & José Elenilson Cruz

  2. University of Brasilia – UnB, Brasília, Brazil

    Gabriel da Silva Medina

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  1. David Frederik da Silva Cavalcante
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  2. Gabriel da Silva Medina
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  3. José Elenilson Cruz
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by David Frederik da Silva Cavalcante, Gabriel da Silva Medina and José Elenilson Cruz. The first draft of the manuscript was written by David Frederik da Silva Cavalcante and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to David Frederik da Silva Cavalcante.

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The study was conducted in accordance with guidelines by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Goiás. All participants gave their written consent to participate in the study.

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da Silva Cavalcante, D.F., da Silva Medina, G. & Cruz, J.E. Getting It Right in Rural Development Initiatives: The Importance of Livelihood Assets in Commercializing Family Farm Production in Brazil. Hum Ecol 50, 49–59 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00293-2

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