Monitoramento de sistemas agroflorestais utilizando indicadores, na comunidade Rio Preto, Sete Barras, SP

Abstract

The present work was carried out in initial agroforestry systems (SAFs), implemented in 2013 on the properties of five family farmers living in the Rio Preto community, municipality of Sete Barras, SP. The implementation of these agroforestry systems was part of the project of a Japanese-based NGO that seeks to conserve the Atlantic Forest biome through mitigation of the negative effects of agriculture in partnership with a university extension group linked to UFSCar Sorocaba. This group obtained a project focused on agroecological transition contemplated in a public notice. After the implementation of the SAFs, the need to follow up these experiences has arisen, in order to better conduct the next steps and to support the farmers involved in the process of agroecological transition. Thus, was proposed a research that approached participatory monitoring of the agroforestry systems implemented, through the use of indicators. The general objective of this work was to report a monitoring experience of initial agroforestry systems using indicators, to evaluate the efficiency of biophysical indicators in monitoring, to investigate the farmer’s discourse on what they mean by SAFs and to discuss the index of similarity in monitoring. In order to achieve these objectives, participant observation was adopted as an approach to get to know the local reality and as a source of complementary information for the research, as well as a diagnosis of rural properties, focusing on SAFs implemented, with the participation of farmers. Discourse analysis was also used to investigate the understanding of the farmers through their speeches. In order to carry out the monitoring of agroforestry systems with the participation of farmers, it was sought to follow some methodological principles present in the literature, using an exercise known as "goal tree" to help define the indicators to be used in monitoring. The Jaccard similarity index was also used to compare the SAFs monitored, in order to complement the results obtained with the indicators. The results showed that through participant observation it was possible to know different aspects about the relationship between farmers and agroforestry systems. The results of the diagnosis showed that the smallest of the agroforestry systems implanted has an area of 322 m² and the largest 1056 m². In these plantations 49 tree species were identified, including exotic and native species, representing 21 botanical families. As for natural resources, the diagnosis showed that soils are similar in most areas and that in all of them there is at least one species of spontaneous plant. Discourse analysis revealed that there is no convergent idea among farmer’s about the concept of an agroforestry system, although it has allowed to identify in the farmers' discourses elements that refer to the idea of temporal/spatial combination of tree species with agricultural crops. Among the results related to the process of defining indicators and monitoring of agroforestry systems, it was observed the difficulty of bringing together the farmers participating in the projects, as well as the lack of interest of some farmers, which hindered the fully participatory management of these processes. However, the indicators used were relevant in the monitoring of agroforestry systems, since they were able to synthesize information about the state of the biophysical characteristics of these systems, and some degree of synergy among some indicators was identified. The results of the similarity index varied between 0.21053 and 0.44737, considered low in the analysis of similarity between agroforestry systems.