Diagnóstico da cadeia produtiva do caju com foco na análise do desempenho dos produtores

Abstract

Strategies to support agricultural productive chains normally have relevant impacts in regional level given their importance in terms of generating economic and social benefits to a great number of small producers working on family labour base. This MSc Dissertation presents an application of a methodological approach conceived to evaluate the performance of small producers related to the cashew productive chain in two counties of Ceará State, in Northeastern Brazil. The work considers the hyphotesis that the chain framework has a relevant impact on producers productive performance. An overview on performance evaluation of agricultural productive chain in Brazil is presented emphasizing the importance of small producers working on family labour base, specially those handling with cashew production. The methological approach makes use both of System Analysis principles and Data Envelopment Analysis modelling to evaluate the performance of the focused productive chain. Such an approach made it possible to analyse management, economic, social, environmental and tecnological aspects of the cashew chain considering every link and node of that chain as well as the chain harsh environment. It was found that cashew small producers` performance are strongly dependent on climate and native cashew trees and so they have a limited power to interfere in production process unless being helped by public policies to be implemented by agriculture and banking authorities. Main results of the work guide to many strategies which are pointed out related to the several aspects of cashew productive chain.