Caracterização das “boas práticas agrícolas” e roteiro metodológico para a certificação da cafeicultura familiar no Sul de Minas

Abstract

One of the largest current challenges is the transference of new technologies to rural producers in an efficient manner, improving his income and life quality. The agricultural certification is based on the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) principals, being a management tool that allows the access of coffee family farmers to sustainable and more lucrative markets. Thus, this work aimed at characterizing the Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and elaborating a Methodological Certification Script for coffee producers of the Associação de Agricultores Familiares de Santo Antônio do Amparo (AFASA). The research was conducted by means of a semi-structured survey type questionnaire, adapted by Pereira (2013) already validated, and which investigated the agricultural practices performed in all stages of coffee production. Thirty-one producers representing all of the properties of the Association were researched. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first 21 questions characterize the profile of the researched producers. The second part refers to the agricultural practices performed by the coffee producers and presents 104 questions. For the characterization of the coffee producers’ profile and their agricultural practices, a cluster multivariate analysis was performed using the SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) statistical software. The cluster analysis separated the Association producers into two distinct groups according to the similarity of their agricultural practices. For the elaboration of the methodological certification proposal, descriptive analyses were performed, allowing us to find the mean of each of the questionnaire’s variables. According to the mean of the grade obtained by each variable, it was possible to analyze the difficulty degree of the producer and the need of adaptation of the agricultural practice, according to the certification demands. Through this analysis, we elaborated a Methodological Script based on the Fair Trade certification with suggestions of management practices according to the reality found in the AFASA.