This paper results from a research for a Master in Business Administration dissertation. Its objective is to disclose results related with the adoption of strategies of Cleaner Production (CP), as a manner of beginning to adapt agronomical activity to new patterns of healthy and cleaner products, demanded by the consuming market, and that culminated with the generation of innovations and competitiveness for the firm. The research method was the case study. The research was made in a farm called Fazenda Cerro do Tigre (FCT), located in Alegrete, RS, Brazil, which deals with the irrigated rice cropping. The results indicate that when the firm begins to concern about the environmental issues and adopts strategies of Cleaner Production, it begins to make good use of a continuous improvement process, which propitiates the appearance of innovations in all segments (process, product and management). As an import conclusion, it is possible to say that the CP adoption facilitates the generation of innovations. The innovations, by their turn, facilitate the attainment of the competitiveness.
cleaner production; innovation; competitiveness; environmental issues; agribusiness
