Avaliação agroecológica da comunidade Caetanos de Cima no município de Amontada - CE

Abstract

Agribusiness is an agricultural model derived from the Green Revolution, which has numerous flaws, since its sustainability comes at a high price. Given the evident damages resulting from this production model, Agroecology emerged, which is based on agroecological principles, enabling numerous economic, environmental and social benefits. With this, the research starts from the hypothesis that the adoption of agroecological agricultural management principles and practices results in various benefits in the environmental, social and economic spheres, contributing to sustainability, which consequently enables the improvement of the lives of the families of the Caetanos de Cima Community, in the Sabiaguaba Settlement - Amontada/CE. Given these motivations, we wish to conduct a research whose main objective is to describe the characteristics that can contribute to the sustainability of the Caetano de Cima Community, taking into account the difficulties and problems of the farmers and the gaps that exist in the daily lives of these families. Specifically, we intend to: describe the social characteristics and agroecological activities of the Caetanos de Cima Community; to know and evaluate the social, economic and environmental aspects that contribute to sustainability and well-being in the Community; notes and proposals for improvements for the Community. For this purpose, the sampling and data collection platform called SurveyMonkey was used, based on the number of 75 families; a sample of 36 families was calculated, with a 90% confidence level and 10% margin of error. The data tabulation was used a Likert scale with five categories: very bad, poor, fair, good and excellent, which sought to express, based on the residents' perception, the local situation. In order to hierarchize the indicators according to their importance for the sustainability of the community, the Relative Importance Index (RII) was calculated. Analyzing the averages of the set of indicators of the social, economic and environmental aspects, it was evident that the highest average is related to social factors with a RII of 0.75. Among them, the IIR for leisure activities stands out, with 0.86, the IIR for housing with 0.85 and the IIR for education with 0.83, values very close to 1. In view of this, the study presents evidence that leads to the acceptance of the following hypothesis: that the adoption of principles and practices of agroecological agricultural management results in various benefits in the environmental, social and economic spheres, contributing to sustainability, which consequently enables the improvement of the lives of families in the Caetanos de Cima Community. However, improvements are needed mainly in the economic aspects, a difficult task, since government investment and participation are essential to develop actions in this sector.