Between ”soils” and “lands”: etnopedology, rural settlements and participatory processes

Abstract

Although its small presence, agricultural activities have significant importance in in Porto Alegre metropolitan region (PAMR), Rio Grande do Sul State. This fact has reflected in efforts to consolidation of this activities, especially in family farms model. With the aim to evaluate soil characteristics, as well as meet the perceptions and evaluations of  producers, two settlements in PARM were visited, and areas of housing and production of family farms were choose for this work. There were used tools like semi-structured interviews, walking, and some plots were selected for soils sampling and observations. These results showed that settlements soils have limitations for agricultural use, like low natural chemical fertility, sandy texture and restrictions to drainage. Local producers can distinguish these characteristics, and for this it was important to make some comparisons with land of their origin localities. Local people showed easier comprehension of field approaches, highlighting the need of these tools for dialogue between technicians, researchers and target people. It was possible to recognize identities between local people observations and technical-scientific attributes used in land suitability evaluations, showing rapprochement between these types of knowledge, allowing planning of sustainable productions systems, in participatory way.