Sustainability of different production systems papaya (Carica papaya L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) in the semi-arid region

Feitosa, Erialdo Oliveira; Lopes, Fernando Bezerra; Andrade, Eunice Maia de; Palácio, Helba Araújo de Queiroz; Bezerra, Francisco Marcus Lima

doi:10.4067/s0718-58392019000100114

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Estimating economic indicators is essential when making decisions about the performance of a food production system [67,68]. However, the contribution of family labor to production costs is often disregarded in such analyses.…”

Section: Socioeconomic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Assessment of Family Agricultural Properties: The Importance of Homeopathy

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Family farming is a lifestyle and agricultural base that has ensured food for the world’s growing population in addition to the family’s own subsistence. However, the intensification of production processes to primarily generate exportable surpluses is based on the constant input of industrial inputs of low local socioeconomic viability. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of family farms and their impact on the adoption of homeopathy instead of traditional/conventional intensification techniques. The study was conducted at six family farms located in the Serrana Mesoregion, Santa Catarina, Brazil, and include farms were classified according to the management and representativeness of their agricultural activity, i.e., conventional grains-cattle, milk-grains, grains and diversified, and according to their ecological basis, i.e., agroecological and organic. To discuss the sustainability of the family farms that were evaluated, the of metrics emergy synthesis, ecotoxicity potential and socioeconomic indicators are used. The results indicate that conventional diversified property has the best overall performance with regard to sustainability, including emergy yield ratio (EYR 1.88), emergy investment ratio (EIR 1.13), return on assets (1.22), hourly income of work (36.6 BRL/h) and income sufficiency (3.3). Agroecological and organic properties have better performance in renewability (76% and 75%), environmental load (ELR = 0.32 and 0.34), sustainability (ESI = 4.78 and 3.5) and potential ecotoxicity (1.736 and 1.579 kg 1.4 DCB-eq/ha). The contribution of homeopathy in an alternative scenario results in a 19% reduction in nonrenewable flows in conventional management properties and a decrease of up to 91% in ecotoxicity in grain + cattle properties. Using homeopathy, the return on assets and profit margin can be increased by up to 43% and income per hour of work and income sufficiency can be increased by 20% and 16%, respectively. This study contributes to discussions about the importance of using homeopathic therapies as a viable strategy that can be used in strategic public policy plans to improve the sustainability of family farms.

show abstract

Section: Socioeconomic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%