Sustainability and agro-ecological management through indicators in an agricultural landscape: case study a the farm level, Ecuadorian Amazon

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate
sustainability and agro-ecological management in the
Guayacán estate, Santa Clara canton, Pastaza province,
Ecuador. It was characterized by the methodology for
assessing sustainability in the Ecuadorian Amazon
region (MESRAE), which involved 36 indicators to
quantify sustainability an ordinal and numerical scale of
1 to 10 was used, considering high levels (>6.5 to 10),
medium (>5.5 to 6.5) and low (<5.5), distributed in four
dimensions, environmental, socio-cultural, political and
economic, with the values obtained for each dimension
were constituted “ameba” flowcharts that allow to
visualize the general state and level of sustainability
of the farm, the average sustainability index presented
the following order: environmental dimension (6.85),
socio-cultural dimension (7.58); political dimension
(4.02); economic dimension (4.32), which were
classified as high, medium or low sustainability; the
index obtained from the farm is 5.69, level one. The
results suggest that sustainability at the farm level
presented critical points in the environmental, economic
and political dimension. Indicators to be improved are:
a) Soil erosion level b) Presence of benzephic insects, c)
Low presence of biodiversity d) Monthly net income of
UPA), e) Agricultural input costs (balanced, deparasive,
salt), f) Marketing strategies, g) Savings strategy, h)
State programs related to the farm (Ganader Systems),
i) Level of acceptance of state programs, j) Articulation
of the farm with other accompanying institutions.