Tropentag 2022, September 14 - 16, Prague, Germany "Can agroecological farming feed the world? Farmers' and academia's views."

Environmental education programme based on agroecological techniques to against climate change, in Pinar del Río, Cuba

¹University of Pinar del Río, Center for Environment and Natural Resources Studies, Cuba
²Tobacco Company of Pinar del Río, Developing, Cuba
³University of Rostock, Agricultural and Environmental Faculty, Germany

Abstract

Agriculture in its evolution towards more commercial models develops production systems based on monoculture and overexploitation of natural resources, causing negative impacts on soils, forests and biodiversity, this problem is due to the management of inadequate agricultural practices, due to the lack of environmental knowledge. For these reasons, Environmental Education is an important tool to develop clean agriculture based on agroecology. The research developed inserted in the DiveCropS Project: Diversifying Cropping Systems financed by DAAD of Germany try to solve the following problem: How to achieve through environmental education that rural producers adopt responsible behaviour with the environment through the use of agroecological practices? That is why the research has as its objective: to apply an Environmental Education Program for rural producers of the Agricultural Productive Pole of the municipality of Pinar del Río, which allows a greater capacity to confront Climate Change with the application of agroecological techniques. To detect the problem, surveys, interviews and observations were used to determine the perception of producers about the existence of environmental problems on their farms and the level of knowledge in environmental culture. In the diagnosis made, 100% of the producers perceive that the climate has changed in the region, a great concern is that they observe an increase in the salinisation of the soils and a significant decrease in yields. The applied Environmental Education Program manages to increase the environmental culture of agricultural producers with an important adoption of agroecological agricultural practices, with the goal of achieving real sustainable development.

Keywords: Agriculture, agroecology, climate change, environmental education

Contact Address: Raymundo Vento Tielves, University of Pinar del Río, Center for Environment and Natural Resources Studies, Borrego Avenue Building 108 Apt C-9 Brothers Cruz, 20100 Pinar del Río, Cuba, e-mail: tielveupr.edu.cu