Avaliação participativa da qualidade do solo em lavouras orgânicas de café e uva, submetidas ao consórcio com adubos verdes

Abstract

The present work was performed with family organic production systems involved in the Association of Family agriculture and/or Organic Farmers of Andradas and Region (Associaçãodos Produtores da Agricultura Familiar e/ou Orgânicos de Andradas e Região — AGRIFAN),located in the cities of Andradas and Caldas, in the southern of Minas Gerais state. Most of these organic farmers — especially the coffee growers — use organic fertilizers purchased in other properties and they adopt the management of spontaneous weeds as the main soil coverage technique. Aiming to evaluate, in a participatory manner, the soils of organic coffee (Coffea arabica) and grape (Vitis labrusca) cultivations, as well as the alterations in the soil when these plantations are subjected to intercropping with green manure, observation units were installed in three properties. Four treatments were used: Treatment EE — Coffee or grape cultivation with weeds (control); Treatment FG — Coffee or grape cultivation with pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan); Treatment MI — Coffee or grape cultivations with millet (Pennisetum glaucum); and Treatment FM — Coffee or grape cultivation with intercropped green manures (intercropping of pigeon pea and millet). There were conducted interviews in order to understand the dynamics of properties. It was adopted the participatory methodology for assessing the quality of the soil from the agroecosystems of the observation units. As a conclusion of the evaluations carried out, it is possible to affirm that the green manure contributes to improving some indicative features of soil quality. Among these characteristics, the millet contributes to greater moisture retention in the soil. The method applied made possible greater awareness and involvement of the family farmers. The adopted methodology was useful and efficient in the training of farmers, facilitating the sharing of knowledge and the collective construction of agroecological knowledge among farmers and agents of rural extension, education and research.