Agroecology

Analysis of the Collective Subject Discourse in the University Environment, Corumbá/MS

Abstract

The objective of this work is to describe and analyze the social representations about agroecology, based on an analysis applied to participants in an elective course of the Geography, at the Pantanal campus of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, in Corumbá / MS, Brazil. This study is necessary due to the fact that, despite the existence of the National Plan of Agroecology and Organic Production (Planapo) since 2012, in Brazil, agroecology is still little known in the country. The methodological procedure adopted was the application of a questionnaire with a single question: For you, what is agroecology? 39 participants were required. Content analysis was done using the Collective Subject Discourse technique. The results point to 54 central ideas. It was observed that 53.7% of the central ideas extracted from the responses consider agroecology as a sustainable practice and that, despite some approximations towards agroecological principles, the vast majority do not know exactly what agroecology is.