Avaliação da sustentabilidade na produção de mandioca no município de Pedras de Fogo PB

Abstract

This work is part of a larger research project called "Studies Network Systems and Research in Sustainability Indicators for Agroecosystems Based Practices in Family Farming and Agriculture Based on the Principles of Green Revolution in Northeast Brazil" and deals with the adaptation and application of MESMIS model - Marco Evaluation Systems Natural Resources Management Incorporating Sustainability Indicators (1995), in the municipality of Pedras de Fogo, south coast of Paraiba, in order to assess the sustainability index in cassava production, based on agriculture family, as social actors. We know that sustainable development appears as a new concept in processing, generating discussion on the basis of little progress in practical terms. From this perspective, instruments have been created in order to change this reality. It is believed that the indicators are methods that help evaluate and communicate the processes present. The MESMIS, model evaluation indicator facing rural contexts, has been understood as an alternative to overcome the barrier merely theoretical and classificatory, pointing to different parts of a management system. From this perspective, the method was applied transversely into six family units, three basic traditional and three alternative basis, the settlement New Dawn in Pedras de Fogo. Were created in a participatory nine indicators of sustainability compounds (Water Resources, Soil Quality, Management, Diversity, Work and their relations, Participation, Self-Management, Economic Situation, Change and Innovation), quantified from primary data collected through interviews, questionnaires and field observations, which enabled detailing the agroecosystems, determine critical points and noted that although culture is a flexible alternative agricultural practices, traditional management techniques are used frequently, due mainly to the lack of knowledge agroecological . Still, the group of agroecosystems based on alternative crop production, presented best feature, from the point of view of sustainability, in social, economic and environmental, as compared to the group of agroecosystems based on conventional production.