Family Farming and Biodiesel: The Difficulties of Socioeconomic Inclusion in the Northeast of Brazil

Abstract

The “National Program for Production and Use of Biodiesel in Brazil” (PNPB) in Brazil was formulated with the objective of promoting the rural development, especially in the Northeast and semiarid region and impacting positively on the environmental issue. Therefore, the aim of this study is analyzing the scenario of the inclusion of family farming and the biodiesel market in the Northeast and in Bahia, as well as highlighting the main obstacles of this biofuel in areas covered by the study. This work is characterized as qualitative and exploratory, whose technical procedures adopted were the bibliographic research and the fieldwork. The research indicated that what was idealized for the biodiesel market in the northeast and in Bahia does not happen as planned. In addition, besides the economic and environmental justification for the introduction of biodiesel into the Brazilian energy matrix, the social issue with poverty reduction in marginal areas of the country has been much valued by the program. However, the PNPB has failed in the Northeast region of Brazil, despite government efforts. As such, it was verified the existence of several barriers that have impacted and remain obstructing the biodiesel market in the region and in the researched State.