Indicadores de sustentabilidade em agroecossistemas de base familiar na região da zona da mata paraibana

Abstract

Agriculture is an important activity for human development in rural areas with important social, economic and environmental significance, mainly due to the continuous expansion of food consumption in line with population growth. Currently, much is said about human responsibility for climate change and the implementation of sustainable agriculture. Sustainability indicators in agroecosystems have been proposed as an important tool to support decision-making processes, not only specific locations of agroecological units, but also within greater powers, such as public policies, expanding and strengthening agroecological learning, as a development proposal. sustainable countryside. In the state of Paraíba, the fairs establish a direct marketing from the family farmer to the consumer, in a subsidiary and solidary way. In addition, it is a time and a space for strengthening the organization process and encouraging the practice of self-management by these farmers. In this way, we seek to understand the contradictions that involve the process of territorial formation, starting from the general hypothesis that family-based agroecosystems contribute to the sustainability of the Zona da Mata Paraibana. The general objective was to use indicators to comparatively and transversally analyze sustainability in different agroecosystems of the families that make up the agroecological fairs in the Zona da Mata Paraibana. And as specific objectives: 1 – Using the MESMIS technique, being the map and crossing; 2 – Identify the positive and critical points of agroecosystems; 3 – Check if these results are isolated or territorial. The dissertation is divided into two parts, the first part includes the introduction and theoretical foundation, and the second part consists of two chapters that address a set of specific objectives. Chapter 1 will test the hypothesis whether the Agroecological transition process impacts the agroecosystems of family farmers. Chapter 2 will test the hypothesis whether dependence on external inputs is a critical point in farm income. The analysis proposed for this work followed a semi-structured script and the stages of the sustainability assessment cycle of the Incorporating Natural Resources Management Systems Assessment Framework – MESMIS were developed, after identifying a statistical analysis. Therefore, it is concluded that the tested hypotheses were corroborated, the critical and positive points identified in the agroecosystems are similar, demonstrating that both diagnosed aspects are territorial, within the regionality of the Zona da Mata of Paraíba.