Avaliação de sustentabilidade de agroecossistemas de bananeira irrigada de formas diferentes de produção moderna e tradicional: o caso de Ipanguaçu - RN.

Abstract

This thesis discusses the sustainability agro ecosystems irrigated by different ways of modern and traditional producing. Irrigated agriculture, resulting from the Green Revolution, was widely contested due to intense depletion of natural resources, the elevation of agrarian concentration, the increased of environmental pollution and levels of social inequality and the income concentration. On the other hand, it is also defended by the argument that, with the vertical integration of agriculture, can lead to increases in productivity levels, in advances of technology and management techniques, knowledge of the nutritional needs of plants and genetic improvement of plant species and the generation of skilled employment. Accordingly, several questions arose about the sustainability of this type of agriculture: the modern, tied to the logic of the green revolution, and the other with the predominance of agricultural production technique known as traditional. The overall objective was to assess the sustainability of modern and traditional agro ecosystems production of irrigated banana in Ipanguaçu–RN, to define the most sustainable in relation to environmental, economic, social and political-institutional, according to the Sustainable Development Index (S³) from the agricultural year of 2011. The methodology was characterized as exploratory and descriptive, allowing the definition of twenty-eight indicators and the assessment of the sustainability of twenty-nine agro ecosystems of irrigated banana. As a result it was found that the traditional production of irrigated banana presented a critical level of sustainability, represented by an index of 0,34, while for the modern production the level was considered stable, demonstrated by the index 0,67. Therefore, it was concluded that the modern production of irrigated banana if by far more sustainable than the traditional one, since it was found to perform with greater resilience, productivity, equity and autonomy.