Fontes, consumo e gestão de energia nas unidades familiares rurais do Alto Jequitinhonha

Abstract

Energy flows are fundamental for maintenance and production within rural family units. Thus, this dissertation aims to analyze energy sources, consumption, and management for food production in rural family units in Alto Jequitinhonha. For this, a bibliographic survey was carried out, which supported the theoretical discussion of the study, and field research based on the mixed research method, a qualitative-quantitative approach of the sequential exploratory type, with the first phase of qualitative field research and the second quantitative. For data collection, semi-structured questionnaires were used. In the first stage, 23 families of different age groups, producers of food for self-consumption and sale, domiciled in 6 rural communities in 4 different municipalities, were surveyed. This step was carried out in person. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary to reorganize the field research to observe the recommendations of the health authorities and preserve the health integrity of respondents and researchers. The strategy adopted for the continuity of data collection was the interview through remote access technologies such as phone calls and calls via WhatsApp application. It was also necessary to use a very small sample, consisting of only 4 farming families and market traders, with different levels of production and assets. The results show that, for maintenance and production within family units, in addition to sunlight, natural-based resources and self-produced internal flows, external energy sources are injected in the form of services, products and inputs, acquired through purchases, transfers and reciprocity between neighbors and relatives. It was found that farmers combine energy matrices of agro-industrial, biological and industrial origin.The main distribution channels are sales, mainly for fairs and public programs (PNAE and PAA) and reciprocity. The main sources of energy consumed by the family units are electricity, feed to treat the livestock, diesel oil and gasoline. In terms of distribution flows, crop and vegetable garden products stand out.