Sustentabilidade nos estabelecimentos produtores de milho na microbacia do rio Socavão – Carira/SE

Abstract

In recent decades the western region of the state of Sergipe has become an important corn producing hub non-irrigated conditions, especially municipalities of Simão Dias and Carira. The activity has brought benefits to the local economy by increasing the income in the countryside and keeping busy manpower in rural area. Production has increased significantly from 2008, however, cultivation has been shown to be vulnerable to intrinsic edaphoclimatic restrictions of the semi-arid region of Sergipe, associated with high evaporation rates, high temperatures, irregularity space-temporal in rainfall, soils with low relatively depth effective and high susceptibility to erosion. The use of inadequate soil management practices and the use of technologies unrelated to regional issues may be aggravating the cultivation vulnerability to the region's climate. In addition to generating environmental degradation and instability in production, which has shown significant yield variability in the last harvests, which influences the sustainability degree rural establishments. Thus, the present study evaluated the level of sustainability of corn-producing rural establishments in the Socavão river micro watershed, in Carira municipality, Sergipe state and identify limiting aspects for the exploitation of corn culture. Specifically, this study tested the hypothesis that intensive exploitation of maize crop contributes to the reduction of the sustainability level in agricultural establishments. The research has a qualitative and quantitative approach, having an exploratory-descriptive character with documentary bibliographic survey and data collection in the field. To assess the level of sustainability, the Environmental Impact Assessment System of Rural Activities (APOIA-NovoRural) was used, what encompassing five sustainability dimensions: Landscape Ecology, Environmental Quality (Atmosphere, Water and Soil), Sociocultural Values, Economic Values and Management and Administration. This method required physical and chemical analyzes of water and soil, observations and tests in study area and application of a questionnaire with local farmers. As a result, low sustainability rates were observed in the rural establishments evaluated. The most restrictive dimensions that condition lower levels of sustainability of the rural establishments evaluated refer to the Ecology of the landscape and the Management and rural administration. Moreover, the lack of technical assistance, low productive diversity, space-temporal irregularity in rainfall distribution, occurrence of shallow and stony soils with low relatively depth effective simultaneously the adoption of practices soil management non-conservationist offer restrictions the sustainability of exploration of corn crop, as well as compromising the quality of natural resources for future generations.