UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL INSTITUTO DE GEOCIÊNCIAS PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM GEOGRAFIA OS "COLONOS" DA FAZENDA FIALHO: A CONSTRUÇÃO DO DESENVOLVIMENTO A PARTIR DE PEQUENAS PROPRIEDADES RURAIS.

This work analyses both small producers potentialities and actions taken in agricultural and/or non-agricultural activities. It consists of a research that aims at showing strategies of reproduction and social modification of rural families. By emphasizing the socalled ‘Fazenda Fialho’ community (Fialho Farm), in the municipal district of Sao Valentim do Sul, it deals about the Italian settlement process in the northeastern region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil – as well as its results. Local population data concerning education, age, conditions of land tenure, sources of income, health conditions, relationship flows and Human Development Index are observed in the analyses of working units, thus serving the purpose of verifying that family agriculture such as the one carried out in small properties is feasible and provides development.