Rio de Janeiro, 30 April 2002

Grupo de Trabalho de Agricultura da REBRIP - Rede Internacional pela Integração dos Povos
[Brazilian Network for the Integration of Peoples’ (REBRIP) Working Group on Agriculture]

In his article “The Multifunctionality of Family Agriculture,” Adriano Campolina Soares, agronomist and current coordinator of Actionaid Brasil’s public campaigns and policy department, introduces the concept of agricultural multifunctionality, and applies it to an analysis of: (a) the role that agriculture, as compared to the other sectors of the national economy, has played in the recent history of Brazil’s development; (b) domestic policy on agriculture; and (c) Brazil’s foreign trade policy and its effects on agriculture. The author undertakes his analysis by focusing on family agriculture, as it exists within the various agricultural sectors in the country.

The author places the origin and development of the concept of multifunctionality in context and identifies the (many) key functions of agriculture as a whole, that is, how it contributes to food security and its environmental and socioeconomic functions. Against this backdrop, Campolina goes on to study the multiple functions of Brazilian family agriculture, demonstrating that the agricultural sector has multiple functions within society that go far beyond the mere production of basic food. Campolina concludes that an official recognition of the multifunctionality of family agriculture should lead to changes in domestic public policy and in the positions adopted by the Brazilian government in international negotiations