Peasant Innovations and the Search for Sustainability: The Case of Carnaubais Territory in Piauí State, Brazil

Abstract

This article pursues two aims. The first is to assess the degree of sustainability in peasant agroecosystems through the application of the systemic approach, allowing an integrated understanding of technical, environmental, economic, and social impacts to support the agroecological transition process; the second is to comprehend the basis farmers have and the strategies they use in locally favoring the emergence of the innovations that constitute the object of analysis. The conceptual framework used ia that of the MESMIS method, which is based on a set of system attributes for agroecosystem assessment. Results indicate that innovations made by family farmers favored improvements in essential elements of system sustainability, making possible sustainable land use, assuring an increase in income, and maintenance of family employment and farm structuring. These factors cast light on the relevance of local knowledge as a key factor in policies that promote the sustainability of family systems, and as a basis for an agroecological transition process.