Evaluacion de la sostenibilidad de la agricultura de subsistencia en San Jose de Cusmapa, Nicaragua

Esperanza Prieto, Omar Gonzalez, Alicia Zazo and Carlos G. Diaz-Ambrona

Revista Espanola de Estudios Agrosociales y Pesqueros, 2013, issue 236, 27

Abstract: Evaluar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agricolas campesinos representa un reto a nivel global ya que la agricultura familiar produce mas del 70% de los alimentos del planeta. En Nicaragua, el 49% de la poblacion rural practica agricultura familiar, siendo el 38% de subsistencia. La zona de estudio se situo en 11 comunidades del municipio de San Jose de Cusmapa (departamento de Madriz, Nicaragua) donde se realizaron 80 encuestas semiestructuradas. Se analizaron los indicadores de: rendimiento, eficiencia energetica, tasa beneficio/coste agricola, riesgo de erosion, agrobiodiversidad, acceso a innovaciones tecnologicas y participacion en las organizaciones. Esta agricultura campesina esta muy lejos de las objetivos de sostenibilidad marcados y se manifiesta en carencias alimenticias y nutricionales. Entre los indicadores analizados cabe destacar los bajos valores alcanzados en el indicador rendimiento y en la agrobiodiversidad. Por ello, es nevesario que las comunidades campesinas fortalezcan su capacidad de adaptacion con el fin de mejorar su nivel de vida y la salud de su ecosistema. Sustainability evaluation of peasant agricultural systems is becoming a global challenge due to the fact that family farms produce over 70% of food supply. In rural areas of Nicaragua family farm involve about 49% population and the subsistence agriculture represents 38 percent. The study area was located in 11 communities in the municipality of San Jose de Cusmapa (county of Madriz, Nicaragua) where 80 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The sustainability indicators: crop yield, energy efficiency, agricultural benefit/cost ratio, erosion risk, agrobiodiversity, technology availability and community participation were analyzed. It shows an unsustainable handling of both natural resources and farming systems, levels of extreme poverty manifested in food shortages and nutritional deficiencies. Among the analyzed indicators, it should be noted the low values of crop yield and agrobiodiversity. It will, therefore, be necessary to uplift the adaptation capacity of peasant communities, in order to improve their standard of living and the ecosystem's health.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Environmental Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:spreea:187472

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.187472

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