ABSTRACT <BR>DOI:10.5773/rgsa.v4i1.210

Abstract

The irrigated fruit cultivation is an activity that has been growing in the State of Ceará, mainly in certain favourable areas. Among these areas, there is the Low Jaguaribe, where various enterprises explore the activity. To evaluate, therefore, whether the irrigated fruit cultivation developed in the region has been contributing for the sustainable development, this research tried to evaluate the social and environmental aspects of the activity. The social matters were evaluated through interviews with the workers of the enterprises that produce fruits in the region. Were interviewed people who worked directly in the production (cultivation, harvest and after harvest cares) because these are the majority of workers in these enterprises. The interviews included items such as: education and health public services in the municipalities of residence, housing, sanitary aspects, possession of lasting consumer goods and job. The environmental matters of the activity were evaluated through interviews with the responsible technicians in the enterprises visited. Items such as use of soil conservation practices, existence of legal reserve in the property, plagues and illnesses control, fire use in the agricultural activity, kind of irrigation system used, among others, were included in the interviews. Starting from these information, two indexes were calculated: one of workers’ quality of life and another of environmental viability. Starting from these two indexes, it was obtained an index of socio-environmental viability of the irrigated fruit cultivation in the region’s enterprises visited in the region as environmental and socially viable.