Nível de Sustentabilidade de Produtores Rurais no Município de Caicó no Seridó Norte Rio Grandense.

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate the level of sustainability among the producers living in the rural and urban area of the municipality of Caicó in the state of RN. In this context, we sought to identify the characteristics of the population, as well as indicators related to quality of life, social capital, and the environmental index in the study areas; Identifying agricultural and non-agricultural activities; Analyzing which activities are most profitable; Addressing the role of associativism and drawing a profile of producers. For this, applications of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 40 producers, where half of the interviewees lived in the municipality's headquarters and a remaining portion in rural communities. The municipality of Caicó presented with a greater portion of products of masculine gender with variants of 23 to 84 years. The quality of life in the rural area was classified as average, however, in the urban area this index is classified as high, with no value of 0.9921. The index of social capital also differed between the populations surveyed, for producers living in an urban area and a ranking of 0.0750, for rural residents with a rating of 0.6500. The working time of the producers residing in the rural area is in a concentration range of 20 to 55 years, with a median of 35 years, already for residents living in the urban area of the municipality and working time is presented in 15 and 30 years, With a median of 20 years. Among the agricultural activities carried out by the rural producers of the municipality of Caicó, a bovinocultura and a sheep farming were the best evaluated in relation to the economic factor, for two characteristics of the sample. The level of environmental preservation expressed by the environmental index was defined as low, in the two realities studied. In this context, it was verified that both the rural producers and the producers of the urban area present the average level of sustainability.