Goat Farmers and the Markets in Figueroa Department, Santiago del Estero, Argentina

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relations of goat farmers with the markets in Figueroa Department, Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Although there is consensus that a growing insertion of farmers in the markets accentuates the inequalities between the different actors and subordinates them to capitalist relations, the way they produce and they reproduce depends on the socio-productive context and the degree of progress of relationships. In Figueroa, farmers allocate their goats for replacement, consumption, sale and other exchanges. Relevant social, economic and cultural aspects interact around goat production. Although the number of heads of goats is declining and it is developing on a small scale, its monetary and non-monetary contribution to the income of the Department's households is significant. The predominant marketing channels are final consumers and goats sellers. Most of the offer is marketed in Figueroa and in the province, and is conditioned both by productive aspects and market aspects. It is an informal market; farmers have their own ways of relating and plan their production according to their property conditions. This paper is therefore intended to contribute to the debate on the relationship of small producers with markets and their insertion into them, considering the different marketing channels, the complementation between destinations and the structural conditions in which producers carry out their production.