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The use of emergy assessment and the Geographical Information System in the diagnosis of small family farms in Brazil

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  • Agostinho, Feni
  • Diniz, Guaraci
  • Siche, Raúl
  • Ortega, Enrique

Abstract

In this work, emergy analysis was used in association with the Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to improve the evaluation of family-managed farms that adopt either the ecological or the chemical production models. Three small farms, located in Amparo County, in São Paulo state, Brazil, were studied. One of them, Duas Cachoeiras farm, uses agroecological concepts for its agricultural production. The two others (Santa Helena farm and Três Lagos farm) use the conventional chemical model. In an attempt to improve the precision of the data used in emergy analysis, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was incorporated to the GIS tool to calculate the topsoil loss in the farms. The GIS tool also allowed the calculation of the amount of rain water that infiltrates the ground and can recharge the aquifer. This percolated water is a system output and was incorporated in the emergy accounting. Another modification in comparison to previous emergy analyses was that the renewability factor of each input was considered in the emergy accounting. Results showed that the agroecological farm is more sustainable and can be used as a model for small farms in their transition to ecological agriculture. The GIS–emergy tools were used to compare the environmental performance of the four main productive areas of Duas Cachoeiras farm (annual cultures, orchard, forest, and pasture). These results demonstrate the emergy performance of each kind of land use and may be used in watershed planning.

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  • Agostinho, Feni & Diniz, Guaraci & Siche, Raúl & Ortega, Enrique, 2008. "The use of emergy assessment and the Geographical Information System in the diagnosis of small family farms in Brazil," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 210(1), pages 37-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:210:y:2008:i:1:p:37-57
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.07.007
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    11. Agostinho, Feni & Ortega, Enrique, 2012. "Integrated food, energy and environmental services production as an alternative for small rural properties in Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 103-114.
    12. Giannetti, B.F. & Ogura, Y. & Bonilla, S.H. & Almeida, C.M.V.B., 2011. "Emergy assessment of a coffee farm in Brazilian Cerrado considering in a broad form the environmental services, negative externalities and fair price," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 679-688.
    13. Almeida, C.M.V.B. & Borges, D. & Bonilla, S.H. & Giannetti, B.F., 2010. "Identifying improvements in water management of bus-washing stations in Brazil," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 821-831.
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    16. Chun-Fa Cheng & Kuo-Tai Cheng, 2018. "Evaluation of the sustainability of Hakka villages in the Lui–Tui area of Taiwan via emergy analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(6), pages 2831-2856, December.
    17. Amiri, Zahra & Asgharipour, Mohammad Reza & Moghadam, Esfandiar Hassani & Kakolvand, Ebrahim & Campbell, Daniel E., 2022. "Investigating the need to replace the conventional method of sugar beet production in lorestan province, iran based on the arguments obtained from emergy calculations," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 472(C).
    18. Giannetti, B.F. & Ogura, Y. & Bonilla, S.H. & Almeida, C.M.V.B., 2011. "Accounting emergy flows to determine the best production model of a coffee plantation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7399-7407.
    19. Asgharipour, Mohammad Reza & Amiri, Zahra & Campbell, Daniel E., 2020. "Evaluation of the sustainability of four greenhouse vegetable production ecosystems based on an analysis of emergy and social characteristics”," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 424(C).
    20. Pulselli, Federico M. & Patrizi, Nicoletta & Focardi, Silvia, 2011. "Calculation of the unit emergy value of water in an Italian watershed," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(16), pages 2929-2938.
    21. Claudio Cordoba Correoso & Feni Agostinho & James Rodrigo Smaniotto & Mari Carissimi Boff & Pedro Boff, 2022. "Sustainability Assessment of Family Agricultural Properties: The Importance of Homeopathy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-22, May.
    22. Bonilla, Silvia H. & Papalardo, Fábio & Tassinari, Celso A. & Sacomano, Jose B. & de Carvalho, Fabio Romeu, 2019. "Contribution of the Paraconsistent Tri-Annotated Logic to emergy accounting and decision making," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 393(C), pages 98-106.
    23. Hamidreza Shahhoseini & Mahmoud Ramroudi & Hossein Kazemi, 2023. "Emergy analysis for sustainability assessment of potato agroecosystems (case study: Golestan province, Iran)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6393-6418, July.
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