Heterogeneity, pluriactivity and transformational processes in sugar-cane peasants, Bajo Grande community Tucumán, Argentina

Abstract

This paper aims to identify not only the internal heterogeneity of peasants devoted lo sugar cane production in El Bajo Grande, Tucumán, but also courses of development for the production units. Multivariant. statistical techniques (main components and cluster) are used to identify and characterise the various production systems or exploitation types. The identified types show a significant variation in the use of existing resources as well as in their functions. Concerning typology, productive courses of development showing an «accommodation» of old sugar-carne production systems to new ways of integrating and intensifying resources are distinguished. Thus, successful courses such as those with serious difficulties for ftunily reproduction are observed. We conclude stating the need of generating technical-productive possibilities outside the strictly technical-political scope, where the altenatives or strategies worked out by the agrarian social subjects themselves are rarely analysed. Although such strategies present specific and individual characteristics, they result in a possible and viable model, since it is in accordance with the conditions (restrictions and potentialities of resources) of peasant economies.