PEASANT PRODUCTIVE ELECTIONS AND THEORIES ON THE FUNCTIONING OF THE MARKET. A PSYCHOSOCIAL APPROACH

Abstract

The economic rationale used by peasants to take productive decisions differs profoundly from that utilized by the agents of the modern capitalist economy. For this reason, many rural development projects aimed at this population, wich usually do not take into account the rationale of these farmers, have little impact. Given the importance of contributing to a better understanding of the rationale used by peasants to make productive choices and interact with market agents, this paper presents the results of a research which, among their objectives, aimed at describing and contributing to understand peasants’ productive choices and the theories they use to make sense of the market functioning. Thus, an exploratory-descriptive research was conducted in the municipality of Misión Tacaaglé, province of Formosa, Argentina. As core strategy to gather information 82 semi structured interviews were conducted, 71 with peasants and 11 with rural extensionists, local officials and other actors, which were analyzed following Grounded Theory.
Results show peasants tend to make productive decisions aimed at limiting climatic and market risks. Nonetheless, when expected benefits are high, they are willing to take their chances. These small farmers also tend to perceive any agricultural activity is necessarily profitable, and when it is not the case it is because someone within the value chain has obtained excessive or illegitimate benefits. This relates to a peasant strategy which aims at using monetary resources to enhance production when they are available, without any evaluation of the potential profits. As a conclusion, understanding the underlying rationale used by peasants to make economic and productive choices is fundamental to generate appropriate rural development strategies.