Avaliação de sistemas de cultivo de milho grão sequeiro no contexto da agricultura familiar: uma aplicação da metodologia multicritério de apoio à decisão (MCDA)

Abstract

It is important to consider the criteria of family farmers in the generation / adaptation of technologies developed in order to improve the performance of their production systems. Typically, this aspect has been rarely considered in research projects. This study aimed to build participatively multicriteria decision model that could operationalize family farmer’s decisional racionality in Unai-MG, related to assessment of mayze cropping systems. It was adopted a constructivist approach to incorporate farmer’s perceptions and subjectivity in the analysis. The study was conducted in two agrarian reform settlements in this county, located close to each other, and was guided by the following methodological steps: (i) characterization of the county and the settlements; (ii) characterization of the main types of farms and the role of mayze in these farms; (iii) construction of multicriteria models with groups of farmers who represented the main types of establishment; (iv) model’s discussion along with the other farmers of the settlements; (v) evaluation of alternative cropping systems using those models. It was analyzed four cropping systems, based on the principles of conservation agriculture, compared to most used system by the farmers: (i) no tillage system + cover crop (pigeonpea - Cajanus cajan) + chemical control of weeds; (ii) no tillage system + cover crop (jack bean - Canavalia ensiformis) + mechanical control (“roçadeira”) of weeds; (iii) no tillage system implemented by the farmer; (iv) traditional system with organic fertilizer implemented by the farmer (SC5). The results showed that farmers employ multiple criteria when evaluating mayze cropping systems, which is organized around economic, technical, social (labor), environmental and risk. The built models have emphasized different rationalities, even when dealing in the same category: family farming in agrarian reform settlements. These rationalities were strongly influenced by the socioeconomic context around these farmers, and the role played by mayze in the establishments, mainly to support household consumption. In accordance with the constructivist approach, it was not identified an optimal cropping system that would be the solution for all farmers. Instead, the results showed that the tested systems had different commitments to the goals of farmers when all criteria were considered and that this depended on the socioeconomic context. In this sense, SC4, adapted by farmers, remained the most stable in the different situations analyzed. It is noteworthy, therefore, the need to broaden the general vision that guides the agricultural technology generation, focused primarily on productivity as the predominant criterion for evaluation. For this, the participatory research is a way to expand the traditional agricultural research. It is in this context that the multicriteria modeling with a constructivist approach (MCDA) can be an important tool for research with family farmers.