Realidade socioeconômica e a perspectiva da intervenção da UFCG nas atividades desenvolvidas na Comunidade Mocambo de Baixo, Patos - PB.

Abstract

Socioeconomic reality and the perspective of UFCG intervention in the activities carried out in the Mocambo de Baixo community Patos - PB. Agriculture is practiced since the development of the first civilizations for food production. During time, the production systems developed and resulted beneficial to humankind, although they showed to be detrimental to the environment in many cases. However, there are rural communities that kept some agricultural traditions, practiced by the families to produce food for self-consumption. This study diagnosed the socioeconomic reality and evaluated the environmental perception of members of the Mocambo de Baixo community, Patos-PB, as wel as the acceptance level of UFCG intervention as a way to improve life quality in the community. These data were collected by means of a semi-structured questionary distributed to 20 families that answered questions regarding family demography, socio-economic characteristics, land exploration, and perception of the relation between University and rural people. The main results of this study were: life conditions in the Mocambo de Baixo community are similar to those generally observed in other rural communities of the semiarid region of northeast Brazil; retirement, and agriculture and animal raising activities are the main income sources that maintain the families in the community; and the community members not only believe in the university intervention, but also are open to work together with it. It was also pointed out that it is necessary to built and keep a Basic Health Unit in the community, drill wells to assure water availability, and improve the technical assistance provided by government agencies.