Evaluación de la sostenibilidad, eficiencia energética y agrobiodiversidad funcional de los sistemas de producción agrícolas presentes en la microcuenca del río Cutilcay

Abstract

Sustainability, energy efficiency and agrobiodiversity are topics that are at the center of current discussions in the political, economic, social and environmental fields and for their analysis, a comprehensive and multidisciplinary vision is needed. This study aimed to characterize the sustainability, energy efficiency and functional agrobiodiversity of agricultural production systems, through the measurement of indicators established by Altieri and Nicholls (2002), Denoia and Montico (2010) and Leyva and Lores (2012). The research characterized a population of 204 agricultural production systems in the Cutilcay river microbasin, Paute canton, southern Ecuador, known at the provincial level for being an area with high fruit and vegetable production. The methodology used was based on gathering information through structured surveys applied to the owners of the production systems and direct observations and/or measurements through tours of the farm. Regarding the results, the production systems presented an average of 7 sustainability, 2 energy efficiency and an average value of 0.18 in the agrobiodiversity index, the latter being the only variable that did not reach optimal values according to the established threshold. The evaluated systems were grouped into four types of production: fruit, mixed, horticultural and indoor, which presented significant differences (P<0.05) in relation to the variables studied. Regarding this, the types of fruit and mixed production obtained the best values unlike the type of production under cover that presented the lowest values.