Agricultural production in Southwest Virginia is characterized by numerous small, geographically disperse farms dedicated to traditional practices of producing tobacco and cattle. Community leaders have expressed the desire to diversify the region's agricultural production base to include potentially more profitable commodities such as horticultural crops. In order for the small growers to penetrate the fresh horticultural market and compete with the larger production regions, they must organize themselves into a farmer cooperative that allows them to pool resources, reduce costs, and share risk. A successful cooperative will increase farm incomes for the region's producers. The co-op will strive to obtain a higher price for the commodities produced than that price which can be obtained by growers acting independently. The increase in farm incomes should offset forecasted decreases in agricultural incomes resulting from declines in the region's traditional production activities. Increased farm incomes for a large number of small growers should have a substantial impact on agricultural producers, marketers, and equipment suppliers and lead to economic development for the region as a whole. Several past horticultural cooperative efforts have been publicly financed and eventually failed for a wide variety of reasons. The methodology used in this research include surveying and interviewing marketing specialists, co-op managers, growers, extension agents, horticulturists, and other experts involved with both successful and failed cooperative efforts. The data gathered from these interviews has been used to identify key factors that have contributed to the success or failure of the other cooperative efforts. Based on the key factors identified from the research, a specific cooperative structure has been developed for the Southwest Virginia growers. This organizational structure incorporates into its legal documentation (bylaws, business plan, and marketing agreement) the critical factors that must be carried out by members, management, extension, and marketers in order to increase the probability for the cooperative's long-term survival and profitability. / Master of Science

Orientador: Marcio Antonio Cataia / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociências / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T07:25:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lamas_Marianna_M.pdf: 1420792 bytes, checksum: e0a21753a50853ea722f5af3c222ce65 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O período atual contribui para que o território seja dotado de novos atributos técnicos, científicos e informacionais, promovendo profundas transformações na divisão territorial do trabalho e da produção. A região Centro-Oeste destaca-se no território nacional por configurar um novo espaço de ampliação da produção de algodão herbáceo, com ênfase para o estado do Mato Grosso, responsável por aproximadamente 70 % da produção de algodão do Centro-Oeste e cerca de 50% da produção nacional, indicando uma especialização regional produtiva. Esta especialização fundamenta-se na dissociação territorial da produção em uma parcela técnica - relativa à produção propriamente dita e dispersa em alguns pontos do território - e uma parcela política ¿ responsável pela regulação, comando e gestão dessa produção, encontrando-se centralizada no território. A análise do circuito espacial produtivo do algodão no Brasil indica que sua parcela técnica vem se concentrando em alguns municípios do estado do Mato Grosso - como Campo Verde e Primavera do Leste -, enquanto parte de sua parcela política concentra-se na cidade de São Paulo, sede da Bolsa de Mercadorias e Futuros (BM&F) e da Associação Nacional dos Exportadores de Algodão (ANEA), formada pelas principais tradings responsáveis pela comercialização e exportação dessa commodity. Sob esse aspecto, trabalhamos com a hipótese de ocorrência de uma especialização regional produtiva extrovertida, dado o comando dessa produção ser forâneo. Visando a comprovação desta hipótese busca-se compreender o circuito espacial produtivo do algodão cultivado no estado do Mato-Grosso, assim como seus círculos de cooperação. Essa dissociação territorial das parcelas da produção contribui para o estabelecimento de uma nova organização e uma nova regulação do território brasileiro, promotoras de novos usos do território, cada vez mais seletivos, hierárquicos e reticulares, contribuindo para sua alienação / Abstract: The current period contributes for the territory to have new technical attributes, scientific and informational, promoting deep changes to the work and production territorial division. The Center-West region stands out on the national territory for being a new enlargement space in the herbal cotton production, giving emphasis to the state of Mato Grosso, which is responsible for about 70% of the cotton production in the Center-West region and about 50% of the national production, indicating a productive regional specialization. This specialization is based on the territorial dissociation of the production in a technical parcel - related to the production itself and scattered in some parts of the territory - and a political parcel ¿ responsible for the regulation, command and managing of this production, being centralized in the territory. The analysis of the cotton productive spatial circle in Brazil indicates that its technical parcel is concentrated in some towns in the state of Mato Grosso - as, for example, Campo Verde and Primavera do Leste - while part of its political parcel is concentrated in the city of São Paulo, home office of the Brazilian Mercantile & Futures Exchange (BM&F) and the National Association of the Cotton Exporters (ANEA), formed by the main tradings responsible for the commerce and export of this commodity. Under this aspect, we work on the hypothesis of an extroverted productive regional specialization event, forasmuch as the command of this production is foreign. Looking forward to confirming this hypothesis, we try to understand the productive spatial circle of the cotton grown in the state of Mato Grosso, the same way that its cooperation circles. This territorial dissociation of the production parcels contributes to the establishment of a new organization and a new regulation of the Brazilian territory, promoting new uses of the territory, more and more selective, hierarchical and reticular, contributing to its alienation / Mestrado / Análise Ambiental e Dinâmica Territorial / Mestre em Geografia

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T18:55:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Michelly Ferreira Elias.pdf: 6485504 bytes, checksum: d190ef4c0c07d5f5976355b211be228d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Study about the agricultural cooperation in the political organization of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), more specifically the experiences developed in Maranhão state, under the orientation of the Marxist tradition. It approaches the conceptions that historically influenced the debate about that theme, considering the historical construction of cooperation and cooperativism, associated to the cooperativist movement of the 19th century Europe and its relation with the fight for socialism, based on what identifies the main tendencies of analysis nowadays which orient different conceptions and practices related to cooperation. It points out analysis elements of the MST political organization process in the fight for agrarian reform in Brazil, within the class fight, situating the construction of the agricultural cooperation conception in that movement and the issue involving the relation between agricultural cooperation and the political organization in MST, within the context of the social fights in the country. It presents a reflection about the contribution of agricultural cooperation for the political organization of the rural workers in the MST settlements, facing the agrarian issue, considering the particular experience in Maranhão based in the configuration of agricultural cooperation. In the final considerations, it detaches the difficult task of MST, in the effort to articulate the immediate fight to the mediate one, in the perspective of construction of a new sociability for the rural workers, having as mediation the fight for land and for agrarian reform, in the objective life conditions in the settlements. / Estudo sobre a cooperação agrícola na organização política do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), mais particularmente as experiências desenvolvidas no estado do Maranhão, sob a orientação da tradição marxista. Aborda as concepções que historicamente influenciaram o debate sobre essa temática, considerando a construção histórica da cooperação e do cooperativismo, associados ao movimento cooperativista do século XIX na Europa e sua relação com a luta pelo socialismo, com base no que identifica as principais tendências de análise, na atualidade, orientadoras de diferentes concepções e práticas acerca da cooperação. Aponta elementos de análise do processo de organização política do MST na luta por reforma agrária no Brasil, no âmbito da luta de classes, situando a construção da concepção de cooperação agrícola nesse movimento e a problemática que envolve a relação entre cooperação agrícola e organização política no MST, no contexto das lutas sociais no país. Apresenta uma reflexão sobre a contribuição da cooperação agrícola para a organização política dos trabalhadores rurais nos assentamentos do MST, no enfrentamento da questão agrária, considerando a experiência particular no Maranhão com base na configuração da cooperação agrícola. Nas considerações finais, ressalta-se a difícil tarefa do MST, no esforço de articular a luta imediata à luta mediata, na perspectiva de construção de uma nova sociabilidade para os trabalhadores rurais, tendo como mediação a luta pela terra e por reforma agrária, nas condições objetivas de vida nos assentamentos.