Challenges and Opportunities of Small-Scrub Production

Abstract

In a historical context, the rubber production chain in Brazil experienced periods of rise and decline due to the pressures and oscillations of the external market and the governmental policies that govern the sector. Currently the domestic production can not serve the consumer market, being necessary to import the raw material from other countries. Thus, due to the lack of national production, market price stability and the sustainable and ecological character of the activity, the commercial cultivation of rubber trees has become an attraction for small producers to increase their income, protect the environment and to stay in the field. The implantation of rubber tree cultivation in the Iporá-GO microregion in specific, derives from the formation of the Association of Heveicultores of Iporá and Region, in 2011 with the objective of promoting a more work opportunity to the local population, with good average remuneration capacity and in the long term, besides allowing the diversification of productive activities in small properties. In this sense, the present study includes in a qualitative research how much its nature and descriptive about its objective, when presenting the particularities of the association, using as methodological procedure the accomplishment of semi-structured interview with the president of the organization and use of the management tool denominated SWOT Matrix, to better visualize the specificities identified; highlighting: the decrease in the number of members, technical and scientific ignorance of the activity, monopoly in the acquisition of seedlings, among other aspects that may reduce the attractiveness of the activity in the region.