The regional milk production cluster (Santa Fe, Argentina) as a rural territorial development strategy

Abstract

The following work corresponds to a first approach and bibliographical discussion on the
term Rural Territorial Development (DTR) and the programmes applied in Argentina in the
first decade of the 2000s, with emphasis on the Regional Dairy Cluster (CLR) and the
reconversion of the dairy activity in the department of San Cristóbal (Santa Fe) in the period
2008-2018. The first is to discuss the strategies of the national government in proposing the
figure of the cluster (CL) as a strategy for RTD where different authors warn of the
"blurriness" and complexity of it, and that it does not correspond to a successful strategy for
such a task. The second is to review the conformation of the CLR and what elements and
processes are taking place in the territory that identify it as a DTR strategy and as a CL.
The CLR arises from the concern of dairy farmers in the region due to the complex context of
the sector in 2008 and the search for policies/subsidies to reduce the risk of losses. The
proposal is carried out by the Provincial Agricultural Services Programme (PROSAP) which
channels funding for these types of projects through its initiatives, such as the formation of
CL, development or innovation transfer through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and
Fisheries of the Nation. The national government, through the Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Fisheries, proposes the CL with the aim of achieving a certain degree of
development. The article proposes a qualitative and interpretative methodology that combines primary
sources (semi-structured interviews with CLR social actors carried out in 2018 and 2021)
with secondary sources (documents, official publications and academic texts). The
information obtained from these allowed us to describe, analyse and study the CLR and to be
able to discuss whether it is a DTR strategy. The CLR manifests multiple problems within
itself and its poor logistics complicate the idea of a developed region. We asked ourselves,
could development strategies be addressed in a rural area with poor infrastructure?