As práticas de agricultura familiar e a busca da sustentabilidade nos sítios Cachoeira do Gama e Juá de Cima- Município de Matinhas- PB.

Abstract

The objective of this work was study the familiar agriculture practices in rural areas named Cachoeira do Gama and Juá de Cima in Matinhas, Paraíba, centralized in the questions related to sustainability, especially in the orange production and other agriculture activities in that region, trying to understand which way the characteristics of these practices con contribute to create a strategy of Sustainable Development that includes patterns: economic; social; technological; environmental and cultural. Moreover, it also tries to create an environmental – social profile to studied area, based on a diagnosis that includes: social factors (demography, habitation, education level), economical factors (production, commercialization, credit and profit), technological factors (agriculture machines, and implements) and environmental factors (relief, climate, hydrograph and vegetation). It also tries to relate the agriculture practices with the disequilibrium or the conservation of the environment especially the utilizations or not of agrochemicals. The reflections carried out in this study were based on the proposal created by researchers that studied this subject .To reach the objectives, 27 agricultures were interviewed, it was also used an Oral History (OH), it was adopted both quantitative and qualitative methodology. The results indicated that one of the main characteristics in the familiar agriculture, in the studied area, was the diversification of crops which is different from the conventional agriculture model in that area. However, does not happen on it the multi-activity phenomenon, which would contribute to the construction of a Sustainable Development strategy that is compatible with a specific reality in that region. A very positive aspect, identified there, was the fact that the agricultures do not use agrochemicals in their crops, which minimizes the environmental risks.