Characterization of coffee ecosystems with the use of sustainability indicators related with handling and health of the cultivation.

Abstract

At present one of the main challenges farmers face is to know when an ecosystem is healthy, and how to handle agro-ecological farms to achieve good crops. As a result it is important to interpret and predict the effects of handling healthy cultivations using different reliable and sensitive indicators, responding to one of the main purposes of modern science, which is to define sustainable production systems to be applied. To characterize 4 coffee farms of the municipalities Yateras and Manuel Tames this research used the evaluation of sustainability indicators linked to the handling and the health of the cultivation, according to the methodology proposed by Altieri and Nicholls (2002), modified by Padilla and Suchini (2013). It was observed that all the farms are above the sustainability threshold; standing out the farm 1(Rancho viejo) which possesses a high value average that allows to qualify it as example of agro-ecological management.