Abstract

DEL POZO RODRIGUEZ, Pedro P.; VALLIM DE MELO, Cauê  and  ORTEGA RODRIGUEZ, Enrique. Emergy Analysis as a valuable tool to evaluate the sustainability on two production systems. Rev Cie Téc Agr [online]. 2014, vol.23, n.4, pp. 59-63. ISSN 2071-0054.

The emergetic analysis is a valuable tool for the integral and systematic evaluation of ecosystems. It estimates the values of emergy incorporated to products, as well as the impact of human activities on ecosystems. In this work an evaluation of the rate of use of the resources in the agroecosystems and sustainability on two systems of banana (Musa spp.) production was carried out. Those systems were Conventional and Agroforestry Systems at Valle de la Ribeira, SP Brazil. The emergetic indexes calculated were: Renewability (% R), Emergetic Yield Ratio (EYR), Emergy Inversion Ratio (EIR) and Emergy Exchange Ratio (EER). The obtained results indicate that conventional system is highly dependent on external inputs and all indexes of evaluated emergetic analysis demonstrate that the agroforestry system has higher renewability (68% vs. 29% R), higher potential of utilization of resources per consumed emergy (3,2 vs. 2,8 EYR), smaller pressure on the environment (0,46 vs. 2,41 ELR) and lower dependence on the economy resources (0,46 vs. 0,55 EIR). The use of emergetic analysis methodology showed to be an effective tool to evaluate the sustainability of the studied production systems.

Keywords : emergetic methodology; emergetic indexes; agroecosystems; banana.

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