Análise da sustentabilidade em unidades demonstrativas do Projeto Rural Sustentável - Cerrado no Projeto de Assentamento Fruta Danta por meio da Metodologia ISA

Abstract

Sustainable development occurs when we achieve a good quality of life while respecting the productive capacity of ecosystems without compromising them. Sustainable rural development is an essential process for achieving a balance between increased production, income generation, the preservation of natural resources, and the maintenance or improvement of the quality of life, ultimately resulting in the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of an agricultural production unit. Rural producers must understand sustainability in their production units for sustainable rural development to occur. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze sustainability in four demonstration units of the Sustainable Rural Project, located within the Fruta Danta Settlement Project, using the SIA methodology. It is possible to measure sustainability in an agroecosystem by analyzing indicators that assess the viability of a production system using a methodology. The SIA methodology comprises 21 sustainability indicators. It is applied through visits to demonstration units, where information is gathered from their owners and data and samples are collected in the field. The sustainability indexes obtained (0.54, 0.49, 0.53, and 0.53 for units A, B, C, and D, respectively) showed that none of the demonstration units reached the sustainability threshold established by the methodology, which is 0.70. These results may be related to the understanding of the members of these demonstration units regarding sustainability.