Práticas de adaptação e resiliência climática em sistemas agrícolas de produção especializada no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos

Abstract

Human interference in its various ways of relating to the earth has caused significant impacts on the maintenance of the earth's system, including influencing climate change. In agriculture, climate change has caused economic losses in various regions, impacting agricultural production and livelihoods, from farming families to companies in the sector. Given that climatic conditions are essential for agricultural operations, changes in precipitation, temperature, the increase in the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events have a high impact on specialized agricultural production systems, such as sericulture and horticulture, increasing uncertainties for these sectors and putting their contribution to local development at risk. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to investigate the implications and relationships between climate change adaptation strategies in strengthening resilience in specialized sericulture production systems in Brazil and horticulture in the United States. Three scientific articles were developed to achieve this objective. The first presents a bibliographical study of the discussions on climate resilience in family farming to promote sustainable rural development, providing an understanding of the challenges, adaptations, and opportunities. The study consists of a scoping review of the literature, developed with secondary sources, collected from scientific databases, published between 2000 and 2021. The second article described the impacts, drought adaptation strategies in sericulture and institutional actions to help farmers deal with the implications of extreme weather events in Diamante do Sul, Paraná, Brazil. The study was exploratory with a qualitative approach, using nonparticipant observation and semi-structured interviews with farmers and institutional actors, as well as documentary research to collect secondary data. The third article was exploratory in nature and used a qualitative approach. It examined the understanding of professionals in the horticultural sector about the impacts of climate change on plant cultivation and the adaptation strategies used in horticulture in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. This study was developed through in-depth field research, in which data was collected using a semistructured questionnaire and non-systematic participant observation. The contribution of this thesis was to show that although the impacts of climate change potentially affect specialized agricultural production systems, adaptation strategies are useful for achieving the objectives of maintaining and continuing agricultural operations, acting to reduce impacts and manage new opportunities to strengthen paths towards climate resilience. In a systemic way, policies, educational actions, and concrete incentives should be considered to break down barriers that limit efficient adaptation choices and to intensify sustainability in agriculture, as well as articulating mitigation, adaptation and productivity trends.