Non-Traditional Agricultural Exports by SMEs Based In Venezuela: Food Sovereignty and the Problems of Building New Agriculture System

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ABSTRACT

Venezuela is amongst richest countries in the world in terms of oil reserves; however, even still Venezuela is termed as a poor country and has been facing problems like scarcity of food and lack of sovereignty. The economy of Venezuela has got no benefits from such a huge amount of oil reserves in the country, as small amount of people in the country take all the revenues from oil exports, which includes multi-national companies, as well. The major aim of this research was to analyze the development of agricultural exports in Brazil, which they had achieved through non-traditional agricultural exports. Venezuela has been facing different problems due to lack of agricultural production in the country. The crisis of food in Venezuela has resulted because of the special situation of Venezuela, which includes problems like land degradation and stringent policies of the government regarding investment in the country. Venezuela, in addition, to other problems, Venezuela is also facing the problem of land degradation. The most common issues of land degradation in Venezuela are sealing, erosion from water, compaction, sodification, and salinization. The researcher had applied the case study secondary methodology, following the interepretivism research paradigm and analyzed the case of Brazil and Venezuela, as these countries have managed to boost their economy through agricultural exports. Brazil and Argentina have managed to bring improvements in their agricultural sector and this had made a tremendous effect on their economy. Venezuela can also benefit from agricultural exports, if they manage to control the problem of land degradation and improve governmental policies regarding investment in the country.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTII

LIST OF TABLESVI

LIST OF CHARTSVII

LIST OF FIGURESVIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

1.1 Academic context1

1.2 Problem statement4

1.3 Aims and objectives of the research5

1.4 Research questions5

1.5 Rationale of the study5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW7

2.1 Food system problems7

2.1.1 Social and economic issues8

2.1.2 Technological advancements and environment9

2.2 Current status of land degradation in Venezuela12

2.3 Changing nature of global agriculture: The need for innovation in the agricultural systems in Venezuela13

2.3.1 Changes in technological innovation13

2.3.2 Changes in agricultural production and processing15

2.4 The importance of agricultural exports in economy development16

2.5 Agricultural export diversification: A strategy to boost agriculture exports18

2.6 Development theory: Industrial expansion and agricultural modernization20

2.7 Hypotheses development23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY24

3.1 Introduction24

3.2 An overview of the case study methodology24

3.3 Research design: Qualitative case-study based analysis25

3.4 Justification of research method26

3.5 Data analysis technique: Content analysis27

3.6 Research hypotheses27

CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS28

4.1 Brazil: A case study in non-traditional agricultural exports28

4.1.1 Brazilian economic development and the role of agriculture30

4.1.2 The situation of agricultural exports of Brazil in recent times34

4.2 The case of Argentina in non-traditional agricultural exports38

4.3 An overview of the agriculture production in Venezuela42

4.3.1 Food problem and food sovereignty in Venezuela44

4.4 Hypothesis results47

4.5 Summary49

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS51

5.1 Recommendations51

Recommendation 1: Fighting land erosion and agriculture problems51

Recommendation 2: Recommendations for government policies52

5.2 Conclusions53

REFERENCES55

BIBLIOGRAPHY59

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL36

TABLE 2: MAJOR AGRICULTURAL CROPS PRODUCTION FIGURES, VENEZUELA46

TABLE 3: MAJOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION OF BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA46

LIST OF ...