Collective Organizations and Rural Properties: Dairy Farming Diagnostics in Southern Minas Gerais State

Abstract

The milk production chain is a sector of great importance for the Brazilian economy, and it consists mostly of small producers. Collective cooperation practices are fundamental for assisting in the development of these activities and for strengthening dairy farming. However, milk producers often do not pay attention to the need to participate in the associations, cooperatives and other organizations of people (OP) that may provide help for many problems that devastate the everyday activities of dairy farms. This study aimed to investigate the main influences that these collective organizations can exert on dairy farms and to identify the structure of the relational interaction between them. A total of 115 dairy farmers from 8 cities in southern Minas Gerais state, including Campestre, Caldas, Ipuiuna, Poço Fundo, Elói Mendes, Poços de Caldas, Machado and Paraguaçu, were interviewed. Multivariate analysis was performed using Pearson correlation to identify the main existing influences. The results indicated correlations between the cooperatives, associations and other collective organizations and dairy farms in several areas, such as technological and managerial development, registration and access to information and production scale. It was possible to determine how the relationships between the collective organizations and dairy farms occur in southern Minas Gerais state. The results showed the influence that these collective organizations exert on dairy farms, which reinforces their importance for the milk production chain.