Política agrária e qualidade institucional na governação dos investimentos na agricultura na província de Gaza: análise da adequabilidade do programa SUSTENTA para a integração dos agricultores familiares entre 2020-2022

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the efficiency, in terms of maximizing results and the effectiveness in maximizing the social and economic impact of the process of implementing the SUSTENTA program in Gaza Province. It is on this basis that this research, following the concern of the Government of Mozambique to achieve food and nutritional security for peasant families through increasing production and productivity in the agricultural sector, aims to analyze whether the measure adopted by the Government with a view to obtaining intended results was effective or not. This program advocates, among several other aspects, the targeting of Government support to emerging commercial farmers – PACEs and the linking of small family farmers to the latter, in order to benefit from Government support channeled through the SUSTENTA program. However, even if SUSTENTA is the Government's concern, the theory of change used, which is PACE, is neither clear nor evident with a view to obtaining the intended results. Sometimes because the program uses extension agents, sometimes because it uses agro-industry, which brings with it the problem of the program's efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, in terms of PACE's profile and history, it is not clear whether SUSTENTA's strategy is to use them or not to guarantee the integration of peasant families. In summary, together with my supervisor, I developed the following research question: “How is the integration of small family farmers ensured in the SUSTENTA Program adopted by the government agenda in Gaza Province between 2020 and 2022?” In this work, the methodology is based on qualitative; data analysis was used aiming to understand people's experiences and perspectives from their own point of view, in order to arrive at a grounded theory. Theory thus emerges from the data and not just the other way around, moving from mere description to interpretation and analysis. In this study, 36 interviews were carried out: 10 with small commercial farmers, 20 with small family farmers (2 or 3 selected for each small commercial farmer to which they are linked); 2 with SUSTENTA Technicians in Gaza Province, 1 with OMR; 1 with UNAC, and a joint session composed of 1 Senior Coordinator of SUSTENTA at FNDS and 1 Head of the Family Agriculture Planning Department - DNDAF, of the Ministry of Agriculture in addition to 3 focus group sessions. In addition to the interviews, participant observation was carried out, and presence in 1 public dissemination session of the SUSTENTA evaluation results (OMR studies) with several key informants and critical analysis of the discourse made on the documents about SUSTENTA. The data was analyzed using inductive codes (from the interviews) and deductive codes (from the theory and interview guide) where they were extracted, categorized and described in the research. Subsequently, descriptions of codes and related data were compared to look for similarities and differences. Finally, the codes were conceptualized, linking them to theory to draw conclusions. As a theoretical-analytical tool, the work adopted the Political Economy analysis (PEA) approach, which focuses on the analysis and understanding of political, economic and social forces, that is, groups and individuals, that articulate demands with the government as they determine and/or contest the formulation of public policies, the allocation of resources and the distribution of their effects. The results obtained revealed that the SUSTENTA Program, at the level of the Gaza Province, did not uncover instances in which small family farmers actually benefited from the support granted by the Government to emerging commercial farmers, that is, the projected “expansionist effect” was not satisfactorily achieved. The study concluded that the philosophy adopted by the SUSTENTA program in terms of profile and standards does not facilitate the integration of small family farmers into productive value chains. In fact, small family farmers did not benefit from the SUSTENTA Program, both in terms of the support granted by the Government, that is, the expected inputs: improved seed, fertilizers, among others, and in terms of their perception of the impact of the Program SUSTENTA.