Home Gardens in the Vision of the Imaruí - SC Agriculturists

Abstract

The principal aim that guided this investigation was the search for an alternative away for the appropriation of Legal Reserve’s Areas, stimulating environmental concern aswell as feeding security. The choice of Imaruí whereabouts was based upon the continuity of previous agro-forestall studies, held by the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, over this community besides some other local problems, such as: environmental damage, erosion, over usage of agricultural defensives and the necessity of improving product commercialization. This investigation over the home gardens came up as an attempt to verify their existence inside the rural properties forming Aratingaúba community, in Imaruí district, and verify the possibilities of fitting them in a Legal Reserve’s pattern. In this study was used as a methodological reference the participation approach and the concepts of local knowledge and ecological local knowledge. The field work stages were formed by interviews, questionnaires, workshops and participant observation, aiming the observation of factors engendering the occurrence and the permanence of these homeo gardens andthe identification of possible species forming it or could form an ideal model for thelocality studied. 39% of the Imaruí’s Agropecuaristi’s Association were interviewed and the parents of the students (from the fifth to the eighth grade) of Aratingaúba’scommunity school answered the questionnaire. The students of the school assessed by the study took part in activities that generated a primer over the agro-forestall yards.The most important factor pointed by the investigation was that the appearance and permanence of homeo gardens was assured by the concern about self-consuming food production and the profits obtained from their exceeding production. Through management practices used by farmers on their own home gardens the concern over the quality of the food produced was evident. Was clearly showed by the participatingsocial actors that the taste for the activity and the tradition, strong aspects of the local knowledge, transmitted by previous generations. Was verified that the yards are formed by fruitful species, ornamental, oily and medicinal ones. During the realization of the workshops with the students, species were listed in order to build a yard model for this region, considering the possibility of commercialization and the local knowledge overthe species, their management and production. As for the ecological aspects regarded by the implantation/growth of the yards, the farmers couldn’t perceive the possibility of environmental conservation that these home gardens could offer when implemented the succession process in the area. About the importance of the aggregation of Legal Reserve’s Areas and the usage of these yards with this finality, it was observed that the farmers don’t have any interest in acquiring these lands, because it doesn’t mean any economical advantage and the government don’t charge them for the land’s usage.