Family Farming Facing the Extractive Model of Rural Development in Colombia

Family Farming reaffirms itself from the debate on the peasantry and its fundamental role in the society with respect to global interests such as environmental sustainability, food security and sovereignty, creation of proximity markets between producers and consumers, healthy food based on sustainable agriculture, and overcoming rural poverty. Given its relevance, various organizations and social movements promote Family Farming as an alternative form of production and social organization. This is the case of the National Family Agriculture Network (RENAF, for its initials in Spanish) that seeks to make visible the importance of this category and support the enactment of differential public policies in Colombia. This article provides a reflection on the multidimensional construction of Family Farming in the country and the possibilities it offers to face the crisis generated by the extractive model of the agri-food regime. The particular characteristics of family farmers are highlighted, especially their productive, social, environmental and economic rationality, which constitute strategies of resistance against the extractivist model and sources of autonomy to reproduce their social conditions of life.