CERTAINLY, TOGETHER, WE KEEP LEARNING MORE": THE EMERGENCE OF INNOVATIONS AMONG AGRO-EXTRACTIVE WOMEN IN THE LOWER TOCANTINS (PA)

Abstract

n the municipality of Cametá-PA, more specifically in the rural community of Ajó, the Agroextractivist Association of Residents of Ajó-AMA is located, made up of 11 (eleven) women farmers, who have been building adaptations and rearrangements in their productive and organizational practices present in their daily lives that favor initiatives and new strategies that constitute deviations in relation to the hegemonic model of agricultural modernization. With attention focused on this collective, this article aims to analyze innovative initiatives, in the productive and organizational practices built by women farmers associated with AMA, which put women farmers' knowledge and practices face to face in the implementation of projects for rural development in the rural community of Ajó. Based on qualitative studies and, more specifically, on a case study focused on AMA, the results of this research highlight the emergence of productive and organizational innovations in the association, related to the transformation of simple fruits sources of family consumption or animal feed for marketable products; the establishment of the AMA Family Agroindustry; and access to public policies and new forms of commercialization, such as institutional markets. In general, based on the theoretical lenses used in the analysis of this research, it was possible to highlight innovative strategies developed by women farmers associated with AMA, based on contextual knowledge, which enabled them to develop new strategies or practices in the rural environment in which they are located inserted.