Analysis of the sustentabilidade economic, social and ambient of the organic culture of hortaliÃas: the case of the producers of the Association for the Farming Development of Organic - AFDO

Esta dissertaÃÃo analisa a experiÃncia da produÃÃo de hortaliÃas orgÃnicas no municÃpio de Guaraciaba do Norte-CE, projeto realizado pela AssociaÃÃo para o Desenvolvimento da AgropecuÃria OrgÃnica â ADAO, como alternativa ao cultivo convencional. O objetivo do trabalho à analisar a sustentabilidade econÃmica, social e ambiental dos agricultores que produzem no sistema orgÃnico. Para que isso fosse possÃvel, foi usado um Ãndice de desenvolvimento sustentÃvel (IDS), composto por trÃs outros indicadores de desempenho, um indicador de Desempenho EconÃmico (IDE), um Indicador de Desempenho Social (IDHA), e um Indicador de Desempenho Ambiental (IDA). Tais mostraram que o cultivo orgÃnico està mais bem inserido nos aspectos da sustentabilidade. O IDS obteve uma mÃdia de 0,600. O desvio-padrÃo à de 0,265, o que indica a existÃncia de agricultores neste tipo de cultivo inseridos em um nÃvel de alto desenvolvimento. O Ãndice de desenvolvimento ambiental em virtude da utilizaÃÃo dos princÃpios agroecolÃgicos na atividade apresentou uma mÃdia de 0,800 com desvio padrÃo de 0,447 e o desempenho social representado pelo IDHA, mostrou um desempenho mÃdio de 0,524, com desvio-padrÃo de 0,381. O indicador de desempenho econÃmico obteve o desempenho mÃdio mais baixo dos trÃs indicadores com 0,447 de mÃdia e desvio-padrÃo alto de 0,476. O trabalho conclui, entÃo, que o cultivo orgÃnico à vantajoso porque acarreta melhor qualidade de vida aos que exercem essa atividadeThe little that still remains of the biome of the Atlantic forest, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is represented in the form of fragments, which is the case of the county of ViÃosa, a region considered to be of extreme ecological importance and that has been intensely degraded over the last years, due to anthropic activity. This fragmented scenery is due mainly to the actions of coffee planters that destroy its permanent preservation areas (PPAs) and legal reserves (LRs). Considering only the county of ViÃosa 4000 hectares has been planted with coffee, causing in this way, a drastic reduction of the native forest of the region, as well as a significant reduction of what economists call ecosystem goods and services - EGS. Thus, the coffee planters in the PRO-CAFà (organization of local coffee planters) were selected as target public, this choice being credited to the fact that this group characterizes the coffee planters of the mountainous region. In this respect this investigation had as a purpose to determine the main variables that affect the coffee planters environmental perception, and monetarily valorization of the forests, since this might be the a single strategy for environmental preservation. For this a formulary was developed with 33 questions involving information on socio economical characteristics, the use of the methodology of contingent valorization (MCV), and the vehicle of payment of the âoffer gameâ that reveled the willingness to accept a compensation (WAC) in exchange of a hectare of coffee for a hectare of forest. The results show that the coffee planters have a good understanding of the importance of the fragments, being important to stress that the interviewees linked the existence of the PPAs and LRs as the direct responsible for the provisions of the EGSs. However, it was found that even though aware of this importance a conservationist attitude was not perceived, associated to this the absence of a clear environmental education, as well as impunity. The DAC estimate shows that in the case that the government is willing to increase the provision of forest to 70 hectares, they should pay out 254,200 reais (around 116,000 dollars), dealing only with the coffee planters linked to the PRO-CAFà organization and 1,147,000 reais per year if the government should be willing to work with the entire coffee planters population in the county of ViÃosa, which represents 314 hectares of forests