Diagnóstico da produção e do uso de sementes em unidades familiares orgânicas no município de Teresópolis, RJ

Abstract

Despite the great expansion in recent years, organic agriculture has limitations that influence the daily practices of agriculture and facing the constraints imposed by officially regulated technical accreditation standards in Brazil, requiring an adequate level of specialization, such as the production of organic seeds For this sector, which is still very modest, failing to meet demand. Within this context, there is a need for studies to verify the potentialities and difficulties of the family-based organic production units in this seed production process. In this sense, the research was carried out in two stages: the first one was carried out from the characterization of 11 organic production units located in the city of Teresópolis-RJ, which use their own and traditional seeds in their production units. Information on crop diversity and seed production was obtained from these properties, analyzing the difficulties and potentialities of organic seed production faced by the producers. In the second stage, the quality of the seeds provided by the farmers was analyzed, where variables related to the purity, water content, germination and vigor were evaluated through the first count of the germination test. It was verified that in the production units there is a great diversity of cultivated species, as well as of the species and varieties propagated by own seeds and vegetative propagules, nevertheless, the analysis of the quality of these seeds revealed, in the majority, physiological quality below the Not recommended for sowing. The low level of knowledge regarding the methodologies and techniques for seed production, the low availability of areas and the difficulties imposed by legislation are the main obstacles hindering the production of seeds with satisfactory physiological quality by the producers of the Agroecological Association of Teresópolis. Follow-up and technical capacities are required to disseminate information on the processes of plant selection, production, selection and storage of seeds to the producers, as well as financial subsidy to ensure adequate processing and storage structure, in order to provide the Improvement in the quality, quantity and diversity of the seeds produced. The organization of producers interested in seed production can contribute to ensure compliance with the mandatory legislation on the use of organic seeds and generate volume of production with quality to meet the demands of producers of the association or even the region