Collaborative governance in the context of the covid-19 pandemic on the brazil-bolivia border in 2020

The covid-19 pandemic presented a series of challenges in multiple dimensions for the planet’s life. Many projects and initiatives were paralyzed due to travel restrictions and contamination risks. Collaborative governance, evoked as an operative concept, might minimize the collective losses, and sustain initiatives related to food security. This paper aims to discuss the collaborative governance between public institutions and peasant families for maintaining agroecological practices and food security in pandemic times. The research was carried out on the Brazil-Bolivia border, in the cities of Corumbá and Ladário as well as in the Land Reform Settlement 72, in Ladário, in the western portion of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Seven peasant families from the Bem-Estar Group of the mentioned settlement and 138 consumers participated in the research. It was observed that the collaborative governance processes assured the survival of the peasant families undergoing agroecological transition and helped to promote food security. Climatic conditions, small availability of family workforce and financial inability to hire eventual workers explain the Group’s internal disparities, and the dynamics of product offer by the peasant families.