PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR FAMILY FARMING IN LIGHT OF LAW NO. 15.223/2025

Abstract

This study is the result of the research project entitled “Analysis and Strengthening of the Cassava Production Chain (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in Rondônia,” funded by the Rondônia Research Support Foundation (PAP Productive Chains Call for Proposals, 2024). This article aims to analyze the normative evolution of agricultural policy for family farming in Brazil, considering the legislative trajectory encompassing Law No. 8,171/1991, Decree No. 1,946/1996, Law No. 11,326/2006, and Law No. 15,223/2025. This is a basic research study with exploratory objectives, conducted using documentary research as its methodological approach, while data analysis was carried out in light of the theoretical assumptions of Critical Legal Hermeneutics. The findings demonstrate how the legal treatment of rural areas evolved from a model focused on agribusiness toward the constitutional recognition of family farming as a rights-bearing category and an instrument of distributive justice. At the same time, the study highlights the limitations of legal provisions in the face of the agrarian paradigm that has emerged as a model of socioeconomic and territorial development in Brazil.