The sustainability in the environmental perception of tobacco producers and development agents: the case of Arvorezinha (RS)

Abstract

The health risks of farmers and the environmental damage from tobacco production is a result, fundamentally, the use of pesticides and deforestation. Attributed to the tobacco sector the negative externalities arising from such practices. In this sense, this study aims to analyze the perceptions of farmers and development workers about the environmental, social and economic cultivation of tobacco in the city of Arvorezinha (RS). The research was carried out using qualitative methods of ethnographic, involving participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 17 families of tobacco growers and seven developers. Research has indicated that tobacco cultivation is mainly a function of income that the activity provides, pushed into the background other areas of influence. Regarding environmental aspects, it is clear there concern about the soil, for example. The social aspects, it is clear that some interviewed feel powerless against the established system integrator and producer of, while others judge the agriculture-industry integration as a solution to the problems faced by the agricultural sector tobacco. Finally, one can conclude that the economic aspect, coupled with social elements, such as survival of the family, as evidenced in the word living, is related to how farmers perceive the term sustainability.