Sustainability of family farming in the Southern region of Amazonas: the case of the Alto Crato community (Humaitá – AM)

Abstract

Amazon family farming has economic, social and environmental importance. It is organized in a cultural context that uses traditional low-impact practices, with a little or no use of chemical inputs. Theagroecosystemsare structured withtheuseofthesoilin areas offloodplains, terra firme, swiddens andcapoeiras, for which an agricultural calendar distributed according to the drought and flood seasonality of the rivers is used. Studies point to the importance of family farming in sustainable development, since it generates income and contributes to food security of rural communities in the Amazon. Our objective in this reasearch was to analyse the family farming sustainability in the Alto Crato community, located in the southern region of the Amazonas State. Interviews were carried out with the farmers, through a form containing questions related to indicators of the social, economic, environmental, and institutional dimensions. The level of sustainability was determined through an indexes ranging from 0 to 1, grouped into five classes: critical, poor, medium, good and excellent. The closer to one, the better the sustainability level. With the results was possible to indicate indexes of 0.58 in the social dimension (average sustainability), 0.36 in the economic dimension (poor sustainability), 0.44 in the environmental dimension (average sustainability) and 0.35 in the institutional dimension (poor sustainability). The general index was 0.46, indicating an average sustainability of the family farming in the community.