HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF ASSOCIATIVISM AND COOPERATIVISM IN FISH FARMING IN WESTERN PARANÁ

Abstract

The work sought to organize the timeline of fish farming in the western region of Paraná, focusing on the creation of associations and cooperatives that gave the impetus to the activity as an emerging production chain. According to Pinho (2004), cooperativism and associativism emerged as an opposition to the consequences of economic liberalism, especially in England and France. This new form of organization of the work process was due to the experience of its precursors in the face of the manifestations of the social issue and inequality in the period of the Industrial Revolution I and II. The research carried out is characterized as exploratory qualitative, and covered the western region of Paraná, focusing on fish production since the beginning of the 1990s,  when the first fish farmers' associations were created in the region. Associations and cooperatives were fundamental to boost the organization of the fish farming production chain and make the region the largest national production center, based on fish production in ponds excavated in family production units, fostering the diversification of the agricultural production matrix and generating jobs and income, and strengthening the industrialization of fish production.