“Um mais um é sempre mais que dois”: Redes sociotécnicas, patrimônio biocultural e a experiência da agroindústria de derivados do milho crioulo no município de São João do Triunfo, Paraná.

Abstract

Today's hegemonic agri-food systems, driven by economic and industrial rationalities, have induced significant transformations in food production and consumption patterns in contemporary societies. With the modernization and technification of agricultural systems and food processing industries, production chains adopt a logic of standardization and homogenization of production. As a result, hegemonic systems tend to weaken countless local and regional productions and contribute to the erasure of technologies, knowledge and practices traditionally employed by ecologically-based peasant farmers and their communities. The socio-environmental challenges, coupled to the genetic erosion of agricultural crops and the risks associated with the use of transgenics in modern agriculture, highlight the centrality of the debate around the preservation of locally adapted Creole seeds and the configuration of associated socio-productive organizations. The main objective of this research is to analyze the configuration of socio-technical networks around the (re)territorialization of creole maize, based on the case study of the processing agro-industry located in the rural community of Guaiaca dos Pretos, in the municipality of São João do Triunfo, Paraná. The unit works collectively and processes cornmeal and canjica derived from Creole maize grown locally by peasant farmers, establishing itself as a strategic tool to make local production viable by adding value to the processed products and accessing formal markets. In this way, it aims to strengthen the network of guardians of Creole seeds and preserve the biocultural heritage involved in the socio-productive chain of maize. This qualitative research integrates perspectives from geography, agroecology and the social sciences to reflect on the constitution of hegemonic and local agri-food systems, socio-technical networks and processes of (re)territorialization in a rural context marked by modernization processes. Using research action and participant observation methodologies, the socio-technical networks that connect farmers, technicians, rural extension workers, professors, universities, city halls, unions, associations and cooperatives were characterized. These networks form a new socio-productive arrangement in the region and enable the articulation of local, regional and state organizations, such as the Triunfo Collective and the Paraná Agroecology Seed Network (ReSA). By integrating heterogeneous collectives, aiming to promote agroecology and the dialog of knowledge, the networks promote the rescue of creole seeds and the resilience of local agri-food systems, contributing to food and socio-environmental sovereignty in traditional rural territories