Family farming as a strategy for immediate economic growth: opportunities and challenges

Family farming is a key pillar of rural economies, ensuring food security, sustainability, and job creation. It is based on agricultural and livestock production managed by families using traditional and sustainable methods. However, it faces persistent challenges such as limited financing, competition from agribusinesses, and poor infrastructure. Despite these barriers, emerging opportunities exist in digitization, product diversification, and access to new markets. Using a sample of 292 participants and stratified probability sampling, ten class intervals with a width of 0.4 were analyzed. Results show that 62% of responses concentrate in the first five intervals, reflecting a homogeneous perception of key issues. The most frequent interval (1.0–1.4) registered 67 observations (22.95%), while the least represented (4.2–4.6) had only 7 (2.39%). Regarding challenges, 61% identified a lack of financing and competition with agribusinesses as major obstacles, while 43% highlighted infrastructure deficits and dependence on intermediaries. The cumulative frequency in the last four intervals reached 0.89, showing that these problems affect most producers. These results provide a foundation for strategies to strengthen sustainability and competitiveness in family farming, emphasizing the importance of support policies, improved infrastructure, and access to resources.