Redes Socioprodutivas: communication for family farming in Mato Grosso

The Redes Socioprodutivas (Socio-productive Networks) project, run by Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), works with six family farming chains, cocoa, coffee, babassu, Brazil nuts, produce and dairy, in an agricultural frontier region. Family farming is strong there but little recognized. ICV needed to give these farmers visibility, value sustainable practices and report to the funder and the public, and it did not yet have a defined communication strategy.

We started in 2018 with a counter-brief and interviews with the project coordinators, cooperatives and consumers, which led to a preliminary report and a communication plan. The research identified radio and digital media as the most promising channels for reaching farmers, and WhatsApp as the space where short videos circulate.

For this audience, we created infographics on myths about forest restoration and on regularizing family farms, leaflets on babassu and cocoa, a comic on conventional, organic and hydroponic products, and a newsletter template for a cooperative, designed to be kept up by teachers and students at a rural school.

In 2019, we took on the project's communications support for six months: monthly news, the email newsletter, mailing list management and planning for radio spot distribution, with a monthly report to ICV.

For the Sabores da Floresta fair in Alta Floresta, we created the Agricultura Familiar 360 experience: two 360-degree videos, watched with virtual reality headsets, that take visitors on a workday with Brazil nut gatherers in the Juruena settlement, in Cotriguaçu, and with a cheese-making family in Alta Floresta. We also designed the stand, the seal for the fair's restaurants and the totems with the invitation "Dê um mergulho na agricultura familiar" (Dive into family farming).