Percepciones sobre el desarrollo rural entre campesinos y ejecutores de políticas en la provincia del Tequendama (Cundinamarca, Colombia)

This paper presents the results of the perceptions of rural development

between farmers who are part of the Nuclei of Rural

Entrepreneurs in the Tequendama Province of the department

of Cundinamarca (Colombia), as well as between public and

private personnel who execute rural policies in this region. The

results show that among respondents there is confusion between

the concept of rural development and agrarian development,

given their answers are oriented to privileging productivity,

modernization, and technology aspects, above those who place

the inhabitants of the rural sector as first. This confusion could

be explained in that during the 1950s it was thought that rural

development had to be oriented toward issues that claim the

rural sector economic activity, regardless of its inhabitants and

their cultural aspects, values and dignity. This aspect shows the

need to reassess the meaning of the rural environment and its

importance for the nation’s development.