SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS APPLIED TO TWO DAIRY FARMS IN MAYABEQUE PROVINCE, CUBA

Abstract

The present work was developed with the objective of evaluating the sustainability indicators in two dairy farms (A and B) of the Mayabeque province, Cuba. An agroecological diagnosis was carried out with student participation through a system approach to identify and rank problems during the dry season. In dairy A, a sustainable animal production project was carried out, while in dairy B the traditional production system was maintained. The sustainability of the agroecological bases was evaluated, by weighting 13 indicators based on the average potential of the dairy farms and the participatory techniques used. These were selected based on international experience and adapted to the conditions of Cuba. The work included the identification and modeling of systems, analysis of processes and of productive, ecological and socioeconomic indicators. Among the tools used are the search for secondary information, participatory observation, surveys, semi-structured interviews and workshops. The Vester matrix was used for the ranking of problems and the construction of the causal tree and they were interpreted using the Funes radar graph in 1997. A comprehensive analysis was achieved for the fundamental dimensions in both units that influence sustainability and with the benefit of the application of agroecological measures in the transformation of livestock ecosystems towards sustainable production systems. It was revealed that food was identified as the central problem, of the eight classified as causes, of the 14 hierarchical problems. It is concluded that the system approach facilitated the identification of the interactions between subsystems and the analysis of the productive and socioeconomic processes.