Análise de sustentabilidade em empreendimentos de carcinicultura na região oeste do Ceará

Abstract

The growing demand for food has fostered the development of agriculture all over the world. Brazil holds great potential for the development of such activity in all its territory. In order for agriculture to have sustainable development as basis, there must be an integration of the social, economic and environmental dimensions, supported by environmental ethics. There must be taken into consideration that the development should not go on if natural resources are destroyed indiscriminately, thus being nature always protected. The social dimension is characterized by creating jobs with fair salaries, as well as inserting the community in the development process, with due respect for local cultures. The environmental dimension seeks the rational use of the natural resources, and the development of ecologically coherent technologies. The economic dimension must involve the adoption of criteria of ecological economy in the production process, and the inclusion of externalities in the product price in order to be subsequently transferred to the sector involved. Therefore, this research aims to analize the sustainability of shrimp farming on the west coast of Ceara, regarding social, economic and environmental dimensions in enterprises of medium (> 10 ≤ 50 ha), and large (> 50 ha). After the analyzes in the different dimensions it can be observed that there are different levels of sustainability in the farms studied. The farms located in Itarema and Acaraú can be classified as sustainable, since they obtained more than 80% of sustainability. Meanwhile, the venture located in Itapipoca, obtained 77% of sustainability, being classified as potentially sustainable.