Autonomy and sustainability: An integrated analysis of the development of new approaches to agrosystem management in family-based farming in Carnaubais Territory, Piauí, Brazil

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze an endogenous development scheme implemented by farming families, involving innovations in the organic production of watermelons; this was a novel local initiative reflecting the creative drive of the farmers themselves, against a background marked by considerable political and institutional uncertainty. The scheme was evaluated in terms of a set of systemic properties measured by multidimensional indicators for farming systems. Data on the selected indicators were collected by field observations, monitoring of production units, and direct semi-structured interviews with farmers. In general terms, the innovations prompted improvements in the various components of extensive environmental and social sustainability, enabling a more sustainable land use through chemical, physical and biological improvements to the soil in the farming systems studied, ensuring increased incomes and the maintenance of family employment, strengthening the farmers' resources and improving their control over resources, and reducing the degree of dependency in relations between the farming unit and the broader context.

Beekeeping and Agroecological Systems for Endogenous Sustainable Development

“…Thirteen semistructured open interviews and four participatory group dynamics were performed. Interviews and group dynamics also served to clarify some points observed at agroecosystems, and to rescue memories that could show the existence of practices not directly observable in the field (Sevilla-Guzman 1999;Altieri 2002;Hecht 2002;Meihy 2005), supporting the research and allowing its correlation with other disciplines, connecting the components of that complex dynamic ecosystem processes (van der Ploeg 2008;Calle-Collado et al 2011;Oliveira et al 2013).…”

Methodologies for Assessing Sustainability in Farming Systems

“…To deal a challenge with measurement for sustainability and its dimensions, a variety of methods or agri-environmental indicators have been developed [43,44,51,[65][66][67][68][69]. For instance, some researchers focused on investigated environmental phenomena related to farming systems and/ or farming practices [43,44,51,61,[70][71][72][73]. The indicator accounting methods in the literature have usually been proposed for specific farming sectors, such as arable farms (i.e., method AEI by Girardin et al [64] evaluating the impact of practices on agroecosystem and its environment); crops, livestock, and forestry (i.e., method LCAE by Rossier [74] or SD by Pointereau et al [75] evaluating the environmental impact); and for specific target groups (i.e., method IFS by Vilain [76] or MOP by Vereijken [77]) such as farmers, farm advisers, policy makers, or researchers [70,78,79].…”

Sustainability Indicators for Biobased Product Manufacturing: A Systematic Review

“…There are studies showing how these particles enter with mutagenic substances that cause damage to DNA and mutations in cells, ultimately affecting progeny (Valavanidis et al, 2008). Considering these issues, two indicators were chosen to represent air quality: gaseous pollutants (not GHGs) expressed in parts per million (ppm) and total particulate matter (less than 10 μm [PM10] and 2.5 μm [PM2.5]) expressed in μg/m 3 (Eseoglu et al, 2014;Gaitan-Cremaschi et al, 2015;Helleno et al, 2017;Heslouin et al, 2017;Huang & Badurdeen, 2017;Joung et al, 2013;Karvonen et al, 2017;Kim et al, 2012;Kluczek, 2017;McBride et al, 2011;Nourmohamadi Shalke et al, 2017;Oliveira et al, 2013;Paju et al, 2010;Schöggl et al, 2017;Thevathasan et al, 2014;Vaidya & Mayer, 2016;Xia et al, 2017).…”