In the last 50 years, Mexico, like many other countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, has experienced accelerated urban growth. Urban growth has been accompanied by an increase in urban poverty. While the spatial distribution of poverty in urban areas in Mexico is varied, new settlements that tend to grow in the peri-urban hinterland of cities are largely associated with poverty. This is because inexpensive, but mostly illegal, agricultural land (ejido or private) has been alienated to satisfy the demands of low income population for housing. The focus of this study lay in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City (MAMC), which is the habitat of diverse low-income groups. Among those groups are the campesinos (people with rural background engaged totally or partially in agricultural livelihoods). Some studies have suggested that campesinos are very vulnerable to urban growth, since population expansion has put severe pressure on their agricultural land, which, despite its marginal value, is used to produce crops for either semi-commercialisation or subsistence. Although such research has showed how poor campesinos have engaged in non-agricultural activities to make a living and how land and their communities are threatened by urban growth due to speculative pressures on land and/or environmental deterioration, little is known about the impact of urban growth in the process of impoverishment of campesinos living in peri-urban areas. This study aims to understand how the growth of the MAMC affects poverty in campesinos’ households, in order to recommend directions for poverty reduction. Three villages in Chalco municipality, which is situated in the peri-urban fringe of Mexico City, were selected as the study area. Based on the development of a conceptual framework, this study considered three interconnected elements underpinning poverty: multi-dimensionality, complexity and dynamism. For this reason, the Sustainable Livelihoods approach was selected as an analytical tool, as it provided a flexible analytical framework that encompasses all those elements. The study is divided in three stages. In the first stage (namely documental investigation), a series of published and unpublished written materials were reviewed to determine how the growth of the MAMC transformed the nature and availability of resources in Chalco municipality from 1970 to 2000. This stage was followed by the empirical investigation that aimed to examine how those transformations affected campesinos’ assets (human, natural, physical, productive and social), the strategies they used to adapt to such changes, and how they perceived changes in poverty status. Accordingly, for this stage, quantitative and qualitative longitudinal and cross-sectional data were collected from 110 campesinos’ households living in the study area in 1997 and 2003 by using structured questionnaires. Qualitative data were also collected by using semi-structured interviews from 34 campesinos’ households in 2000. The final stage, called recommendations, involved the synthesis of the results of the documental and empirical investigations and suggests a series of directions for poverty reduction in campesinsos’ households in the study area. The documental and empirical investigations revealed that changes in asset ownership, between 1997 to 2003, depended on both transformation in the nature and availability of resources in Chalco and intra-household organization. Fundamental transformations in socio-demographic, economic, natural, physical and political/organisational resources of Chalco municipality were mainly, but not exclusively, associated with the growth of the MAMC. Climatic and physical characteristics of Chalco were also evident. To respond to such changes, campesinos implemented a series of strategies to get access to resources. Such strategies were based on campesinos’ needs, priorities and the portfolio of assets available, and their functionality. It was clear that campesinos depleted some existing assets to acquire urban assets and preserve their rural assets. In some instances, such strategies led campesinos’ families to satisfy their basic needs and, therefore, perceive themselves as non-poor. However, in other instances, such strategies prevented families from meeting their needs, leading them to the perception of being poor. The recommendation was made that in order to reduce poverty among campesinos in the study area, it was necessary to identify different alternatives to support their urban and rural assets and certain of their strategies that improve the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities and mitigate constraints to meeting their goals.

In the last 50 years, Mexico, like many other countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, has experienced accelerated urban growth. Urban growth has been accompanied by an increase in urban poverty. While the spatial distribution of poverty in urban areas in Mexico is varied, new settlements that tend to grow in the peri-urban hinterland of cities are largely associated with poverty. This is because inexpensive, but mostly illegal, agricultural land (ejido or private) has been alienated to satisfy the demands of low income population for housing. The focus of this study lay in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City (MAMC), which is the habitat of diverse low-income groups. Among those groups are the campesinos (people with rural background engaged totally or partially in agricultural livelihoods). Some studies have suggested that campesinos are very vulnerable to urban growth, since population expansion has put severe pressure on their agricultural land, which, despite its marginal value, is used to produce crops for either semi-commercialisation or subsistence. Although such research has showed how poor campesinos have engaged in non-agricultural activities to make a living and how land and their communities are threatened by urban growth due to speculative pressures on land and/or environmental deterioration, little is known about the impact of urban growth in the process of impoverishment of campesinos living in peri-urban areas. This study aims to understand how the growth of the MAMC affects poverty in campesinos’ households, in order to recommend directions for poverty reduction. Three villages in Chalco municipality, which is situated in the peri-urban fringe of Mexico City, were selected as the study area. Based on the development of a conceptual framework, this study considered three interconnected elements underpinning poverty: multi-dimensionality, complexity and dynamism. For this reason, the Sustainable Livelihoods approach was selected as an analytical tool, as it provided a flexible analytical framework that encompasses all those elements. The study is divided in three stages. In the first stage (namely documental investigation), a series of published and unpublished written materials were reviewed to determine how the growth of the MAMC transformed the nature and availability of resources in Chalco municipality from 1970 to 2000. This stage was followed by the empirical investigation that aimed to examine how those transformations affected campesinos’ assets (human, natural, physical, productive and social), the strategies they used to adapt to such changes, and how they perceived changes in poverty status. Accordingly, for this stage, quantitative and qualitative longitudinal and cross-sectional data were collected from 110 campesinos’ households living in the study area in 1997 and 2003 by using structured questionnaires. Qualitative data were also collected by using semi-structured interviews from 34 campesinos’ households in 2000. The final stage, called recommendations, involved the synthesis of the results of the documental and empirical investigations and suggests a series of directions for poverty reduction in campesinsos’ households in the study area. The documental and empirical investigations revealed that changes in asset ownership, between 1997 to 2003, depended on both transformation in the nature and availability of resources in Chalco and intra-household organization. Fundamental transformations in socio-demographic, economic, natural, physical and political/organisational resources of Chalco municipality were mainly, but not exclusively, associated with the growth of the MAMC. Climatic and physical characteristics of Chalco were also evident. To respond to such changes, campesinos implemented a series of strategies to get access to resources. Such strategies were based on campesinos’ needs, priorities and the portfolio of assets available, and their functionality. It was clear that campesinos depleted some existing assets to acquire urban assets and preserve their rural assets. In some instances, such strategies led campesinos’ families to satisfy their basic needs and, therefore, perceive themselves as non-poor. However, in other instances, such strategies prevented families from meeting their needs, leading them to the perception of being poor. The recommendation was made that in order to reduce poverty among campesinos in the study area, it was necessary to identify different alternatives to support their urban and rural assets and certain of their strategies that improve the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities and mitigate constraints to meeting their goals.

In the last 50 years, Mexico, like many other countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, has experienced accelerated urban growth. Urban growth has been accompanied by an increase in urban poverty. While the spatial distribution of poverty in urban areas in Mexico is varied, new settlements that tend to grow in the peri-urban hinterland of cities are largely associated with poverty. This is because inexpensive, but mostly illegal, agricultural land (ejido or private) has been alienated to satisfy the demands of low income population for housing. The focus of this study lay in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City (MAMC), which is the habitat of diverse low-income groups. Among those groups are the campesinos (people with rural background engaged totally or partially in agricultural livelihoods). Some studies have suggested that campesinos are very vulnerable to urban growth, since population expansion has put severe pressure on their agricultural land, which, despite its marginal value, is used to produce crops for either semi-commercialisation or subsistence. Although such research has showed how poor campesinos have engaged in non-agricultural activities to make a living and how land and their communities are threatened by urban growth due to speculative pressures on land and/or environmental deterioration, little is known about the impact of urban growth in the process of impoverishment of campesinos living in peri-urban areas. This study aims to understand how the growth of the MAMC affects poverty in campesinos’ households, in order to recommend directions for poverty reduction. Three villages in Chalco municipality, which is situated in the peri-urban fringe of Mexico City, were selected as the study area. Based on the development of a conceptual framework, this study considered three interconnected elements underpinning poverty: multi-dimensionality, complexity and dynamism. For this reason, the Sustainable Livelihoods approach was selected as an analytical tool, as it provided a flexible analytical framework that encompasses all those elements. The study is divided in three stages. In the first stage (namely documental investigation), a series of published and unpublished written materials were reviewed to determine how the growth of the MAMC transformed the nature and availability of resources in Chalco municipality from 1970 to 2000. This stage was followed by the empirical investigation that aimed to examine how those transformations affected campesinos’ assets (human, natural, physical, productive and social), the strategies they used to adapt to such changes, and how they perceived changes in poverty status. Accordingly, for this stage, quantitative and qualitative longitudinal and cross-sectional data were collected from 110 campesinos’ households living in the study area in 1997 and 2003 by using structured questionnaires. Qualitative data were also collected by using semi-structured interviews from 34 campesinos’ households in 2000. The final stage, called recommendations, involved the synthesis of the results of the documental and empirical investigations and suggests a series of directions for poverty reduction in campesinsos’ households in the study area. The documental and empirical investigations revealed that changes in asset ownership, between 1997 to 2003, depended on both transformation in the nature and availability of resources in Chalco and intra-household organization. Fundamental transformations in socio-demographic, economic, natural, physical and political/organisational resources of Chalco municipality were mainly, but not exclusively, associated with the growth of the MAMC. Climatic and physical characteristics of Chalco were also evident. To respond to such changes, campesinos implemented a series of strategies to get access to resources. Such strategies were based on campesinos’ needs, priorities and the portfolio of assets available, and their functionality. It was clear that campesinos depleted some existing assets to acquire urban assets and preserve their rural assets. In some instances, such strategies led campesinos’ families to satisfy their basic needs and, therefore, perceive themselves as non-poor. However, in other instances, such strategies prevented families from meeting their needs, leading them to the perception of being poor. The recommendation was made that in order to reduce poverty among campesinos in the study area, it was necessary to identify different alternatives to support their urban and rural assets and certain of their strategies that improve the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities and mitigate constraints to meeting their goals.

Achieving food security in a changing climate is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. For subsistence-oriented farming families who experience firsthand pressures on their food system - population growth, environmental degradation and climate change, to name only a few - adaptation has become an urgent necessity. The ability to 'adapt and benefit' through a suite of climate change adaptation interventions that build adaptive capacity is touted by many humanitarian and development institutions as integral to food security today. However, adapting and benefiting is often a far reach for many smallholder farming families, who more commonly manage multiple interdependent stressors through a mix of adaptive actions and negative coping strategies. The relative benefit of this mix of adaptive and coping strategies is socially differentiated, varying by location and both between and within households. This combination of strategies, or the variety of options to enact livelihood outcomes, is framed as a response space. This thesis explores the impact of social differentiation on the adaptive capacity of subsistence-oriented farming families experiencing food insecurity and environmental change. Using a case study of two villages in the Upper West region of Ghana, it investigates how adaptive capacity and response spaces differ based on points of social differentiation; the drivers that limit or exacerbate adaptive capacity and response spaces; and the implications of these responses for humanitarian, development, and government programmes that aim to support these populations. These questions are approached using mixed methods (embedded direct observation, the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index household and individual survey, participatory action research exercises, child growth and hospital admissions records, focus groups, and key informant interviews) and a unique conceptual framework which draws heavily from systems thinking, feminist research theory, Sen's capabilities approach and grounded theory. I followed context-specific local drivers to deeply examine the familial and cultural political lives of households to better understand the interdependent nature of empowerment within the household, the distribution of scarce food, control over livelihoods and income, the management of poverty-induced stress, and the risk these drivers pose to public health. Out of this research, a multi-level vulnerability landscape surfaced, characterized by a food system on the margins and unequal adaptation within the case study population. The research led to the following insights: farmers experience multiple disadvantages being located in the Upper West of Ghana as compared to southern regions, and are underserved by multiple governmental and NGO institutions; farmers in turn experience heterogeneous vulnerability and access to response spaces at the community level, which are deeply entrenched in social norms that favour adult male bodies, male spaces, and male-typical productive roles; and, at the same time, there are individuals and families that stand outside these trends and are able to adapt and benefit, which highlights the need for an intersectional approach when examining the household and sub-household context. The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals include a pledge to ‘leave no one behind' in the pursuit to 'free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet'. Understanding the differing vulnerability of subsistence-oriented smallholder farming populations, as well as the ways their response spaces and adaptive capacity have been differently shaped, will be important for the program design and targeting strategies of interventions to achieve this goal. This thesis aims to contribute to this enormous task.

La vulnérabilité alimentaire d'un individu peut être définie comme la susceptibilité qu'il a de faire face, à plus ou moins longue échéance, à une situation d'insécurité alimentaire, au cours de laquelle il n'a plus accès à une nourriture suffisante et satisfaisante d'un point de vue nutritionnelle et sanitaire, et correspondant à ses préférences culturelles. l'enjeu de la thèse est de comprendre les facteurs qui déterminent le niveau de vulnérabilité alimentaire des citadins – puisqu'on s'intéressera au cadre urbain. les citadins élaborent des stratégies de gestion des ressources qu'ils peuvent mobiliser pour faire face aux changements de l'environnement dans lequel ils vivent ; ils s'inscrivent dans le système alimentaire urbain et élaborent des choix de vie (migrations, emploi, logement, investissements) qui tracent une trajectoire de vie, dont leur situation alimentaire dépend. l'enjeu de la thèse est de comprendre ce qui, dans la position que l'individu occupe au sein de son environnement, accroît ou réduit sa vulnérabilité. le terrain d'étude sera la ville de hanoi, capitale du viêt-nam, dont une partie des habitants souffre d'une situation précaire, les conduisant, en cas de choc, à ne plus pouvoir faire face et à se retrouver en insécurité alimentaire. / With a focus on underpriviledged urban dwellers’ everyday practices in Hanoi, this study aims to show the construction of individual and household food insecurity in a city where living standards have dramatically improved over the last three decades. It demonstrates that food budget plays a key role in livelihoods management in an unstable context, by serving as a tool for underprivileged people to adjust to shocks. Therefore, individuals’ food vulnerability should be understood as a long-term livelihoods securitization process.This study shows that livelihoods securitization is based on sustaining social networks. These networks are constantly reactivated by an ongoing circulation of money and goods, and they are the basis of daily mutual assistance at the ward scale. This reveals a strong relationship between lived space and solidarity networks in which risks are mutualized.The analysis of people’s working trajectories shows a high capacity for adaptation, with individuals rearranging their livelihoods (jobs, food production for family’s consumption, rental income, etc.) according to their need and the changes in their environment. Nevertheless, in the context of a metropolizing city, the people’s capacities to take advantage of this development varies greatly. This contrast is reinforced by the fact that resources developments (economic, social, spatial) have a cumulative effect. As a consequence, inequalities are deepened in Hanoi, both at the city scale and wards scale.Such inequalities can be seen in the increasing differences between food practices and consumption patterns among urban dwellers. Products as well as their origines get more diverse, creating new safety concerns ; purchasing places diverge more and more between the rich and the poor ; and foodborne diseases appear while malnutrition issues remain. All along the food supply chain, current shifts illustrate a process that can be called food emergence.Finally, this study reveals that it is primarily non-food phenomenons that result in food insecurity ; it widens the food security framework. In this way, the analysis of urban dwellers’ daily practices provides an illustration of the ongoing urban emergence process of Vietnamese capital.

This thesis examines whether, how and to what extent social cash transfers help the poor in reducing poverty; not only in income terms but also in relation to how they build on their capabilities and address gender inequality, risk and vulnerability. The thesis explores these questions through an analysis of a community targeted social cash transfer scheme from Traditional Authority Mlomba, Machinga district in Malawi, using the capability approach as the conceptual framework of analysis. The study is located in the critical realist domain as its underlying research philosophy. The study is qualitative in nature, using semi-structured interviews, observations and life histories. The scheme targets the poorest 10% of the population who are also labour constrained and deemed to be economically unproductive. Thus, the study offers some insights into an area that is not well researched as it is a relatively new concept to target the poor who are also labour constrained and not economically productive. In this thesis, I show that despite the limited resource base compared to the large number of the poor, social cash transfers as low as US$14 per household per month can make a valuable contribution to the reduction of poverty through building capabilities of the poor, empowering women and addressing some of the gendered inequalities, risk and vulnerability. Therefore, social cash transfers are not just handouts but act as ladders that can uplift the absolute poor out of poverty.

Num contexto de estresse ambiental decorrente da estiagem de 2005, crise econômica em função da baixa renda das ocupações e crise social sinalizada pela diminuição da população de uma região produtora de commodities agrícolas e, partindo-se do pressuposto que o desenvolvimento rural resulta da capacidade de diversificação econômica dos agricultores familiares, formulou-se a seguinte questão: “A dependência na produção de commodities agrícolas reduz a capacidade de diversificação da agricultura familiar e, consequentemente, sua sustentabilidade?” Se a resposta for afirmativa, então “Como o processo de mercantilização interfere na capacidade de diversificação dos meios de vida no meio rural?” O município de Itapejara d’Oeste - região Sudoeste do Paraná – reune as favoráveis condições de pesquisar esta questão, pois, além de apresentar predominância das commodities agrícolas na economia local, possui potencial para desenvolver a pluriatividade intersetorial e a agregação de valor no meio rural.Esta pesquisa permitiu identificar a composição da renda agrícola, extra unidade de produção agrícola e não-agrícola, estimar a diversidade da renda e a sustentabilidade dos meios de vida no meio rural, tipificar e avaliar as trajetórias de diversificação dos agricultores familiares. Concluiuse que a renda foi maior nas famílias com mais diversidade; que uma maior diversidade de renda corresponde a um meio de vida rural mais sustentável; e que as famílias que agregam valor e¤ou são pluriativas possuem uma renda maior e um meio de vida mais sustentável que as famílias que lidam somente com commodities agrícolas e¤ou são beneficiadas pela assistência social. Por fim, foi possível perceber algumas prováveis transformações da agricultura familiar do município e região. / In a context of environmental stress due to the drought of 2005, economical crisis in function of the drop income of the occupations, and social crisis signalled by the decrease of population of an area producing of agricultural commodities, and considering the hypothesis that the rural development results of the capacity of the family farms economical diversification, the following subject was formulated: “Does the dependence in the production of agricultural commodities reduce capacity of the diversification of family farm, and consequently the sustainability?” If yes, than: “How does the commoditiezation process affect the capacity of rural livelihoods diversification?” The Itapejara d'Oeste municipal district - Southwest region of the Paraná State, Brazil – gather favourable conditions of researching this subject because besides presenting predominance of the agricultural commodities in the local economy, it possesses potential to develop the intersectorial pluriativity and aggregation activities in the rural area. This study allowed identifying the composition of farm, off-farm and non-farm income, as well, to esteem the diversity income and the sustainable rural livelihoods and, finally, to typify and to analyse the family farms diversification trajectories. It was concluded that the income was larger in the families with more diversity; that a larger diversity of income turns in a more sustainable rural livelihood; and, that families that join values activities and¤or pluriativity possess larger income and a way of more sustainable livelihood that the families that only work with agricultural commodities activities and¤or have social benefits. Finally, it was possible to verify some probable transformation for the family farms of the municipal and rural area.

The rush for land has escalated the last decade, with Sub-Saharan Africa as the most targeted region. Governments, local elites and foreign corporations are increasingly taking control over large areas of agricultural lands with the aim of creating higher financial returns and achieve food security. This phenomenon, known as land grabbing, has received a lot of attention worldwide, not least from non-governmental organizations and scholars stressing the negative impacts on rural farmers and families. Yet, several international organizations as well as many African governments keep advocating the positive effects that land grabbing can have on poverty reduction and economic growth. The dominating capitalist and neoliberal view on development, focusing largely on the economic part, undermines the social and environmental impacts that these investments bring. The purpose of this comparative study is therefore to examine, analyze and compare these impacts in Ghana and Ethiopia, two countries heavily affected by land grabbing. This is done through the lens of political ecology, where concepts such as environmental justice, accumulation by dispossession and sustainable rural livelihoods will be of particular significance. Based on a systematic literature review, the results show that land grabbing projects, said to aim at stimulating economic and social development, have resulted in dispossessions, injustices and environmental conflicts wherein indigenous communities have been deeply affected. Their traditional livelihoods, based mainly on cultivation, fishing, gathering and hunting, have been threatened by several impacts from the land grabs. These include loss of land, declined access to resources, damaged ecosystems, deforestation and lack of alternative ways to maintain food security.

Este trabalho insere-se na temática do Desenvolvimento Humano e das Condições de Vida, analisando a realidade da Fumicultura no Rio Grande Sul por uma Sociologia das Condições de Vida. A presente proposta permite uma apreciação do desenvolvimento de forma multidimensional dando ênfase à variável humana, procurando ir além dos estudos baseados nos aspectos econômicos, como a produtividade, incremento de tecnologia e geração de riqueza. As considerações teórico-metodológicas fundamentam-se essencialmente na Abordagem das Capacitações e na perspectiva da Diversificação dos Meios de Vida, a fim de entender como realmente encontram-se os meios de vida das famílias produtoras de tabaco e como estas percebem suas próprias condições. Assim, o objetivo geral deste trabalho é compreender como um processo de diversificação possibilita às famílias fumicultoras expandirem seus conjuntos capacitórios através dos seus meios e percepções de vida, criando, então, estratégias de sobrevivência e superação de um contexto de vulnerabilidade social. Logo, busca-se responder sobre quais meios e percepções comprometem esse processo de diversificação e quais fazem com que estes conjuntos de capacitações ampliem as oportunidades para melhorar as próprias condições de vida pela criação de estratégias de superação de um contexto de riscos e incerteza? Ainda, como uma maior dependência da Cadeia Produtiva do Tabaco limita oportunidades das famílias para estabelecerem um portfólio de atividades que lhes permitam ampliar seu conjunto de capacitações e, portanto, lograr melhores condições de vida? Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativa com aplicação de 250 questionários a famílias produtoras de tabaco em treze municípios localizados na Região do Vale do Rio Pardo e Centro-Serra, no RS, o que representa uma amostra significativa do total de estabelecimentos familiares fumicultores. A partir das concepções teóricas, elaboraram-se dois índices, um sobre os meios de vida (IMV) e outro das percepções (IPV), tendo como base cinco dimensões: física, financeira, humana, natural e social. A fim de responder às hipóteses, as informações da pesquisa de campo foram organizadas em um banco de dados, pelo qual foram realizados testes estatísticos de para comprovar a existência de diferença entre as médias dos índices, com grau de significância maior que 0,05, permitindo então inferir explicações para o universo da amostra. Por conseguinte, os resultados atestaram que, para o conjunto das 250 famílias, os meios e percepções mais vulneráveis deram-se nas dimensões financeira e social e os ampliadores ocorreram nas dimensões natural, humana e física. Além disso, foi possível comprovar que as famílias menos dependentes da CPT, ou seja, Diversificadas, apresentaram melhores condições de vida que as Especializadas, comprovando então as hipóteses propostas por esta tese. Estas diferenças revelaram-se estatisticamente significativas nas médias das percepções humana e financeira. Quanto às médias dos meios de vida, estas apresentaram diferenças nos meios financeiro, social, humano, natural e físico, nos seguintes indicadores: renda da fumicultura, diversidade de venda da produção, pluriatividade e plurirrendimentos, acesso a informação geral e técnico-produtiva, sucessão familiar na agricultura, distribuição do tempo de trabalho, educação, bem como forma de aquisição dos insumos químicos e lenha, ferramentas de trabalho e uso da área da unidade produtiva. / This work is part of the theme of the Human Development and Living Conditions, analyzing the reality of tobacco farming in Rio Grande Sul by a Sociology of Living Conditions. This proposal allows an appreciation of the development of multidimensional way emphasizing the human variable, seeking to go beyond the studies based on economic aspects such as productivity, technology development and wealth creation. The theoretical-methodological considerations underlie mainly on the Capability Approach and the perspective of diversification of livelihoods in order to understand how really find themselves the livelihoods of farming families of tobacco and how these perceive their own conditions. Thus, the objective of this study is to comprehend how a process of diversification enables tobacco growing families expand their capacitórios sets through its assets and perceptions of life, creating then, survival strategies and overcoming the context of social vulnerability. Therefore, the aim is to answer about what assets and perceptions affect this process of diversification and which make these sets of capabilities extend the opportunities to improve their own living conditions by creating strategies for overcoming the context of risk and uncertainty? Still, as a greater dependency on the Tobacco Production Chain limits opportunities for families to establish a portfolio of activities that allow them to broaden their set of skills and hence circumvent better living conditions? To this end, a quantitative research with application of 250 questionnaires to tobacco farming families was held in thirteen municipalities in the region of Vale do Rio Pardo and Central Serra, in RS, which represents a significant proportion of total tobacco growers family establishments. Starting from the theoretical concepts has been prepared two indexes, one on the livelihoods (IMV) and another on the perceptions (IPV), based on five dimensions: physical, financial, human, natural and social. In order to respond to hypotheses, the information of the field research were organized in a database for which statistical tests were performed to prove the existence of differences between the assets of indices, degree of significance greater than 0.05, thus allowing infer explanations for the universe of the sample. Therefore, the results believe that, for the set of 250 families, the most vulnerable assets and perceptions have given up in the financial and social dimensions and enlargers occurred in natural dimensions, human and physical. Moreover, it was possible to prove that less dependent families of CPT, Diversified, had better living conditions than the Specialized then confirming the hypothesis proposed by this thesis. These differences have proved to be statistically significant in the averages of human and financial perceptions. As for averages of livelihood, they showed differences in assets: financial, social, human, natural and physical, the following indicators: income from tobacco farming, diversity in the sale of production, pluriactivity and plurirrendimentos, access to general information and technical-productive, family succession in agriculture, distribution of working time, education, and form of acquisition of chemical products and firewood, work tools and use the productive unit area.

Este estudo buscou elucidar os fatores que influenciam na opção dos agricultores familiares de Capanema e Planalto (PR) em produzir e/ou deixarem de produzir tabaco e a implicação destas escolhas, em seus meios de vida. Chama a atenção o fato de o Brasil ser atualmente o maior exportador e o segundo maior produtor de tabaco do mundo sendo a região sul do país, a responsável por concentrar aproximadamente 95% da produção nacional, permitindo a manutenção de muitas famílias que possuem pequenas áreas de terra ou que não possuem terras próprias no meio rural. Capanema e Planalto localizam-se na região sudoeste do Paraná, que se destaca por cultivar espécies de fumo de galpão, que exige manejo, colheita, secagem e classificação diferenciadas do fumo de estufa. Essas particularidades podem proporcionar ao fumicultor a possibilidade da não especialização, buscando alternativas que o auxiliem a se manter no campo e até mesmo, substituir o cultivo do tabaco por outra atividade com o passar dos anos. Nessa perspectiva, optou-se por entrevistar fumicultores e ex-fumicultores - que por motivos variados tenham encontrado alternativas ao cultivo do tabaco, por conta própria ou com auxílio de organizações governamentais e não-governamentais, - buscando compreender de maneira geral como o tabaco está inserido nas propriedades da região e quais estratégias vêm sendo realizadas pelas famílias que optam pelo não cultivo do tabaco. Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo comparativo com auxílio de métodos de caráter qualitativo e quantitativo via aplicação de um formulário e a realização de entrevista pré-estruturada com quarenta e duas famílias. Os resultados encontrados revelam que em média, os exfumicultores apresentam leve superioridade nos índices de sustentabilidade e diversificação, a maioria tendo realizado mudanças favoráveis em seus meios de vida. Verificou-se também que os ex-fumicultores deixam de cultivar o tabaco por fatores que vão além da renda familiar. Dentre esses fatores, destaca-se o uso excessivo de agrotóxicos, a necessidade de mão-de-obra e a renda com o tabaco, que geralmente é inferior à expectativa do fumicultor. / This study aimed to elucidate the factors which influence family farmers from Capanema and Planalto (PR) to start and stop producing tobacco and the implication of these choices in their livelihoods. It attracts our attention to the fact that Brazil is the largest tobacco exporter and the second largest tobacco producer in the world, and the South region, which concentrates approximately ninety-five percent of the national production, making it possible to supply a lot of farmers who own small land areas or even those who do not actually own their piece of land. Capanema and Planalto are located in the Southeast region of the state of Paraná which stands out for growing barn tobacco, which requires management, harvesting, drying and a different classification from greenhouse tobacco. These particularities may be in favor of the tobacco growers to allow the non specialization, searching for alternatives that help them keep in the country and even change from tobacco producing to another activity over the years. In this perspective, it was chosen to interview active and former tobacco growers who, for many reasons, have found other alternatives to tobacco growing, by themselves or with the help of governmental organizations and NGOs, trying to understand in general how it is inserted in the properties of the region and which strategies are being used by families who choose not to grow tobacco. For this, a comparative study was held with the help of methods of quantitative and qualitative characters via an application form and the accomplishment of a pre-structured interview with forty-two families. The obtained results reveal that in average, the former tobacco growers show slight superiority in sustainability and diversification indexes, most of them having made favorable changes in their livelihoods. It was also checked that the former tobacco growers stop growing tobacco for factors that go beyond family income. Among these factors, the overusing of pesticides is highlighted, the need of manpower and the income with tobacco, which is generally less than expected by the farmer. But the production strategies found by former tobacco growers to replace tobacco in the farms vary between chicken and pork creation in integration system, construction of agro-industries and sale of homemade products directly to the consumer, apart from agricultural and nonagricultural work performed outside the production units.