BARBOSA, Robson Fernandes.
Abstract:
Dairy goat farming represents an important productive activity for the Northeast region, with emphasis on the State of Paraíba, being the largest national producer of goat milk, according to the last IBGE Agricultural Census (2017). Therefore, we sought to assess the sustainability of dairy goat farming from a system of indicators aimed at the Western Cariri region of Paraíba through the inclusion of social capital in the MESMIS method (Framework for the Assessment of Management Systems for Natural Resources Incorporating Indicators of Sustainability) . In methodological terms, the study was carried out following the steps of the MESMIS model, where a methodological gap was noticed in its evaluation criteria, requiring the inclusion of the social capital variable to portray the reality of the object of study more reliably and accurately . In methodological terms, interviews, questionnaires, photographic records and on-site visits were used, which provided the collection of primary data. Such data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. In this sense, a set of 38 indicators was created, distributed among 6 assigned for analysis, which allowed us to visualize the aspects that need improvement to achieve sustainability by the evaluated systems. The result of the research indicated that the dairy goats in Western Cariri is within the range of 0.39-0.69, that is, an average contribution to sustainability according to the parameters adopted in this study. Therefore, the Sustainability Index of Dairy Goat Farming (ISCAL) found was 0.55, which means that, despite the impact of dairy goat farming in this region of Paraíba, indexes below 0.69 are not considered sustainable. Thus, some indicators contributed to this undesirable performance, such as the one related to late payment, with the worst index, with 0.12, followed by the insufficient consumer market and the lack of sales channels, both with 0.17 . Thus, it is necessary not only for more public policies to encourage milk producers, in which government purchase alone is not enough to ensure a satisfactory sustainability index for dairy goats, but other strategic actions are necessary to enable the flow. of production, aligning the conception of a systemic and integrated vision of the production chain. Therefore, it is believed that this research can contribute with a new method of analysis for the sustainability of agroecosystems, in this specific case, the dairy goat, serving as a management tool to support decision-making involving associations and/or cooperative, emphasizing milk producers as protagonists in this process of managerial change towards more sustainable family farming.
