PARCERIAS PECUÁRIAS: UM ESTUDO MULTICASO NO NORTE DE MINAS GERAIS

The main purpose of this research was to identify and describe how beef producers and urban investors feel about the environmentin which they act by comparing favorable and limiting factors associated with the development of partnerships between the twogroups in the northern region of the State of Minas Gerais. A focused-interview method was used to collect data and interviews wereconducted among four producers and four investors who had previously, or were still involved in partnerships, chosen by means ofa purposive sampling technique. The following factors were cited by investors as incentives to participating in partnerships:insufficient capital to purchase land and personally raise cattle, the profits possible from cattle raising, the rapid return and thesecurity and liquidity of their investment. The producers cited the possibility of making use of their pasture resources, having thecapital from the investors and the possibility of receiving a sizable return on the sale of the cattle. Unfavorable factors cited byinvestors included low quality of pastures, the concerns of working with the producer, the risk of drought and possibilities ofinsolvency. Producers also cited the problems of drought as well as the doubts of the investors in their trustworthiness, the problemsof settling up at the time of sales of the cattle and the low quality of the cattle bought by the investors. At the end of the study theproducers and the investors were presented with the hypothetical possibility of choosing between being either a producer or aninvestor. The opinions were divided. Half of the investors and half of the producers chose to invert their positions in the partnership.In conclusion, the results demonstrated that partnerships were positively evaluated by the two categories of participants and thusrepresent a viable option for the production of beef cattle in the study region.