Territorialization of cassava starch factories in Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

This study analyzes the characteristics of the geographic space produced by and for cassava production – consisting of its cultivation, industrialization and commercialization – in the Southeast and extreme South of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. Regarding cultivation, we sought to understand the labor relations established between farmers, harvesters and contractors. Industrialization delimits the operation of the cassava starch factories located in the municipalities of Ivinhema, Naviraí, Deodápolis, Glória de Dourados, Novo Horizonte do Sul, Mundo Novo, Sete Quedas, Itaquiraí, Tacuru, Coronel Sapucaia, Cassilândia and Anaurilândia. We conducted a field data survey to get closer to the research object and to be able to delimit our investigation object. We administered questionnaires to six starch factories, thirty farmers, interviewed an Agraer technician, an employee of Banco do Brasil, ten workers who work in cassava harvesting, and a class organizer. We analyzed the work in the factory, where we were in the role of participant observer, since the situations were stored in our memory. The concentration of starch factories in the Southeast and extreme South of Mato Grosso do Sul is largely due to the expression of the administrative centralization of the business community of Paraná, São Paulo, and Santa Catarina in their respective states. The reproduction of starch capital is enhanced by its spatial strategies set up with their interactions made more complex by the diversification of the manufacturing units spread throughout the territory of Mato Grosso do Sul and in the area of ​​the border with Paraguay, and of their products. Labor relations within the factory have undergone changes and have changed the professional culture of the workers of Mato Grosso do Sul. Farmers are predominantly characterized by owning or leasing areas of up to 100 hectares, having little technical equipment for cultivation and resorting to renting machinery. The relations of subordination of the work of family farmers by starch factories occur in two ways: through the monopolization of capital in the territory, when companies buy raw materials from farmers; and through the territorialization of capital, when industries lease and/or plant on their own land.