Camponeses e a Mandalla no semiárido Brasileiro: reflexões sobre sustentabilidade com base em um estudo de caso com abordagem agroecossistêmica

Abstract

This article aimed to characterize a Mandalla system managed by a farmer from state of Ceará, Brazil, and to analyze its sustainability through systemic attributes, taking as reference the peasant way of life and the coexistence with the semiarid region of Brazil. It illustrates a family whose members build up their lives based on peasant practices and values, deal with conflicts and contradictions, and use a strategy for risk reduction, where the combined production of values of use and goods seeks the reproduction of the household. The Mandalla is inserted in this context and has encouraged the farmer to experiment and adapt management and commercial practices, resulting in a production that provides food for the family with low external inputs and relative autonomy. Sustainability principles for the semiarid region were discussed, such as stock regulation, combining small irrigation with other strategies of or adapted to this environment. It was found that a productive innovation, if guided by the principle of diversification of crops and products, becomes attractive and strengthens peasant strategies, with an impact on the stability of family livelihoods. Other spaces traditionally managed, such as the productive backyard, could benefit from the same principles of sustainability and of investments of policies and programs, perhaps with additional advantages.