Modelos conceituais de sistemas agroflorestais agroecológicos no sertão do Pajeú-PE: Uma aplicação transdisciplinar à luz da tecnologia da informação.

Abstract

Inserted in the Brazilian semiarid region, over time inappropriate agricultural activities in the Sertão do Pajeú have driven the untimely use of natural resources of the Caatinga, shaping a threatening picture to the environment and the survival of family farming, which is directly related to the management of food production systems. In this conjuncture, the Agroecological Agroforestry Systems reveal themselves as a sustainable technology that produces diversified and healthy agricultural food and, associatively, makes a balanced and efficient use of natural resources. However, these productive systems integrate activities and processes that constitute multiple information about which family farmers have no substantiated/unified access, not even through the rural technical assistance service, a fact that incurs difficulties or impediments to the very implementation of the SAF's in their productive units. Faced with this problem, the question was raised: Would the conceptual models of agroecological SAF's in the Sertão do Pajeú-PE be potential instruments for the transmission and dissemination of information used by family farmers to help them reproduce and manage an SAF agroecological to their satisfaction? In view of this, the research hypothesized that conceptual models of SAF agroecological can be instruments used to help family farmers, since they excel in their technical and functional character, by representing and presenting in a structured way the activities, characteristics and relationships of real-world systems, while also meeting the requirements of information (clarifying/explaining) and dissemination of knowledge (teaching and multiplying). From this premise, on which the presented hypothesis was based, the research was justified by the potential that conceptual models have in attending to all these questions and still addressing them in a perspective of facing the issues of the reality of life in the productive environment of the semi-arid region. The research has a qualitative and quantitative nature and brought together methods defined both by Software Engineering and by scientific methodology that address the specification and treatment of requirements, as well as methods of data analysis specific to the purpose. As a result, the modeling unified the complex activities and represented in a simple way the pluriactivity of the SAF's (technical aspect), providing the understanding (functional aspect) of the existing relations between a sustainable agriculture synchronously to the balanced use of natural resources, in a way that it incorporated the strategic role of the SAF's before the importance of the existing natural resources in the Brazilian semiarid region and in degraded areas. In view of this, it was concluded that the conceptual models created are potential instruments of information in the dissemination of knowledge about SAF agroecological and can help farming families, since they characterize the primary aspects and multifunctionality of the methodologies and practices of this sustainable alternative production, among which are the processes of implementation, management and productivity; the context of SAF with the family farmer, the environment and society; and the context of SAF in the management of natural resources and relations with the Biosphere. As a result, it was also found that the SAF's agroecological are a sustainable strategy that provides improved quality of life for family farmers, concomitantly with the change of negative anthropic actions for sustainable actions with emphasis on environmental recovery, environmental conservation and combating climate crises.