Banca de DEFESA: FELIPE FERREIRA STABOLI

Challenges of the Participatory Guarantee Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic: the national register of organic producers, the conformity assessment mechanisms and the experiences of the Associação de Agricultura Natural de Campinas e Região

Organic Compliance Assessment, Virtual Tools, Assessment Mechanisms, Social Control.

National regulations recognize three mechanisms for assessing organic compliance: audit certification, Participatory Guarantee Systems and Social Control Organizations. The social distancing caused by the pandemic has altered the dynamics of SPGs. Thus, the use of new tools, dynamics and process adaptations were fundamental to overcome this period. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the National Register of Organic Producers and the impacts of the pandemic on the mechanisms for evaluating organic conformity. Identify the processes, dynamics and tools used by SPGs to get through the pandemic period. And build, collectively, together with the SPG of the ANC, protocols and documents for the maintenance and guarantee of the organic compliance of the system suppliers. Based on a qualitative and quantitative approach, an analysis was carried out of the historical series of the National Register of Organic Producers between 2016 and 2022, seeking to identify the dynamics of the numbers of organic producers in Brazil and the impact on the number of producers during the pandemic period. active. The percentage variation of the period, the accumulated variation of the period, the highest values of active producers, the number of producers per region and the mechanism for assessing organic compliance were evaluated. The number of registered OACs, OPACs and OCSs. A survey was carried out with SPGs in Brazil through a questionnaire on the GoogleForms platform to identify the challenges, strategies, tools and documents used during the pandemic. Association of Natural Agriculture of Campinas and Region also suffered impacts on its dynamics during the pandemic and needed to adapt its processes. Through the concept of the Actor-Network Theory and through participant research, we sought to build collectively with the members of the SPG of the ANC a protocol for maintaining the guarantee of organic quality and documents that could help and guide producers during this period. CNPO analyzes showed that the number of Brazilian organic producers increased by 96.19% between 2016 and 2022. Evaluation mechanisms based on social control represent 58% of the active registration of producers. The southern region of Brazil has the largest number of organic producers. SPGs currently operate in 17 states and the Federal District, and the largest SPG is Rede Ecovida with 5,517 registered producers. The impact of the pandemic had an impact on the numbers of producers at the CNPO and in July 2020 we had a 6.58% drop in OCS producers. In September 2020, SPGs lost 8.28% of producers compared to the previous month's registration. SPGs have adapted during the pandemic and used ICT tools to navigate the challenge of social distancing. The dynamics and tools identified were: remote visits, use of virtual spreadsheets, reports, checklists, meetings, minutes and media. The ANC built two virtual evaluative document models: PMO and PMP-succinct and developed a protocol. The autonomy of each SPG allowed each one to develop mechanisms and procedures to meet their own reality. The use of virtual tools was essential. The protocol and documents prepared by the ANC were fundamental to get through this period