Family farming clustering, expanding processes of the agricultural border and resistance strategy in Figueroa, Santiago del Estero

Abstract

The phenomena of forest loss are often referred to as processes of conversion to other land uses and are associated with the advance of the agricultural border. This gives rise to processes of commodification in rural territories. In Figueroa, the expansion of the agricultural borders ocurred in family farming clustering. These dynamics were neither continuous nor homogenous. It is therefore possible to identify different phases and zones. This article seeks to understand the complexity and particularities of the processes that favoured the persistence of family farming. This analysis is carried out on the basis of a cartography elaborated from different databases. The results obtained on Figueroa contribute to the conceptual debates on the forms of territorialisation of capital in agriculture and the plurality of responses of family farmers to prevent their dispossession. This also leads us to discuss the strategies of resistance that are generated in a context of high levels of conflict over natural resources.