ICTS IN BRAZILIAN FAMILY FARMING: FACING ISOLATION AND DIGITAL EXCLUSION Ada C. Machado da Silveira*, Maurício de Souza Fanfa and Clarissa Schwartz Department of Communication Sciences, Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT The article records the evolution of primary data made by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) with the aim of understanding the progressive digital inclusion in the Brazilian rural world. We revisit in an updated perspective a survey that originates in 2006 and continues until 2022, relating the consumption of ICTs by Brazilian family farming. The importance of mobile phones is highlighted, anticipating the arrival of Smartphones and the Internet in rural areas. The exodus of young people, especially girls, is a reality even in family farming. Masculinization and aging are constant in rural reality, aspects that greatly contribute to the wear and tear of the social fabric. The analysis of the evolution of primary data on the presence of ICTs allows us to understand the characteristics of digital inclusion in the Brazilian rural world. At the end, we present our reflection on the potential of ICTs in the context of gender and generation relations for rural development policies. Copyright©2024, Ada C. Machado da Silveira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. INTRODUCTION The article records the evolution of primary data collected by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) with the aim of understanding the progressive digital inclusion in the Brazilian rural world. At the end, we present our reflection on the potential of ICTs in the context of gender and generation relations in the developmental context. We identified characteristics of the social process of transformation of communication in rural areas based on the analysis of some primary data relating to digital inclusion and Internet penetration in Brazilian territory. As demonstrated in previous research (Schwartz, 2012; Silveira, 2019; Silveira, Schwartz, & Souto, 2013; Silveira, & Viero, 2011), women's role in managing gender relations in family farming comprises their action as mediators of affective-productive relationships through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs, from now on). This provides an understanding that the articulation of gender research with research on the appropriation of ICTs can provide a new perspective on two pressing issues for rural development: a) the digital inclusion of Brazilian rural areas; and b) the rural exodus and family farming. Taking the rural area as a space that comprises a complexity of phenomena linked to the deterritorialization of social life, we have in mind a perspective of pluractivity, which comprises the agro- industrial production of food, inputs and raw materials in general, in addition to the extractivism. Pluriactivity also includes activities such as tourism, leisure, sport, seniors, health and others, in which there is a prospect of engaging female work. However, despite the growing sensitivity to gender and generational differences, family farming still suffers from the lack of recognition of female work. The exodus of young people, especially girls, is a reality even in family farming. Masculinization and aging are constant in rural reality, aspects that greatly contribute to the deterioration of the social fabric (Camarano, Abramovay, 1999). Rural Extension has traditionally dedicated a set of activities related to domestic work to women, despite it being known that women farmers do not ignore practices related to the domestic economy and productive agricultural activity. At the same time, they approach an area in which the true mediators of the family bond are revealed: the use of ICTs. In 2006, telephony was prominent in the use of ICTs in rural areas, especially cell phones, initially used for entertainment. The vehicle, link and cognition aspect of ICTs such as cell phones were and are very important for rural development, even though they are disregarded by public policies generally focused on modernizing aspects. Taking communication as a vehicle requires recognizing the practices that link messages and that allow relationships between subjects. Taking it as a bond involves recognizing the bonding strategies that generate social cohesion. And, finally, taking it from the perspective of cognition requires recognizing the theoretical practices related to the position of observation and systematization of dissemination practices and social bonding strategies (Sodré, 2002). The choice of family farmers is justified by the importance of the activity in Brazil: production through family work, at the beginning of our studies, occupied 74.4% of the total number of people working in agriculture (IBGE, 2006). Women have skills that can be decisive in confronting the redefinition that both productive techniques and new ruralities are requiring from new work relationships and sociability in rural areas. And it is in this way that the use of ICTs sometimes coincides with the traditional framing of women as mediators of productive activities, sometimes strategically placing them at the epicenter of the decision- ISSN: 2230-9926 International Journal of Development Research Vol. 14, Issue, 04, pp. 65491-65496, April, 2024 https://doi.org/10.37118/ijdr.28088.04.2024 Available online at http://www.journalijdr.com Citation: Ada C. Machado da Silveira, Maurício de Souza Fanfa and Clarissa Schwartz, 2024. “ICTS in Brazilian Family Farming: Facing isolation and Digital Exclusion”. International Journal of Development Research, 14, (04), 65491-65496. RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS Article History: Received 11 th January, 2024 Received in revised form 17 th February, 2024 Accepted 15 th March, 2024 Published online 30 th April, 2024 Key Words: ICTs, Communication; Communication for Development; Familiar Farmer. *Corresponding author: Ada C. Machado da Silveira,