Diagnóstico de los Impactos Ambientales Asociados al Uso y Manejo de Plaguicidas en Dos Sistemas Productivos de Cacao en el Municipio de El Castillo Meta

Abstract

Is presented in a detailed way the diagnosis of environmental impacts associated with agricultural practices for the use and handling of pesticides in two farms cocoa of the municipality of El Castillo - Meta, specifically those used in farming for the control of pests and diseases. This study presents the characterization of the study area, with information obtained from secondary sources and other local studies, information of the properties was obtained with the technique of direct observation in two models for the crop (System Management (agroforestry and monoculture system).

This study identifies the agroforestry system presents lower incidence of environmental impacts due to the management of cultivation and low application of pesticides. In the same way found that most representative impacts on both properties are the deterioration of the soil by overdosing of pesticides and impacting human health due to the lack of use of individual protection equipment.

Impacts were evaluated according to the methodology of EPM or Arboleda, determining the relationship of the practices current with environmental impacts caused by them; In addition an economic valuation of impacts was made to study the perceptions of the producers about the involvement of current practices and at the same time raise awareness and generate a series of commitments for further mitigation, according to the methodology of Ruiz Agudelo and others. These results allowed the consolidation of technical environmental guidelines for future application and will serve as a reference for future research.

The results of the investigation suggest the strengthening of the producers in the implementation of techniques for the management and use of pesticides and the importance of the use of individual protection elements, as evidenced that they have trained in different processes for different media on good agricultural practices, but are not implemented due to the high costs of labor in farming making evident the recurrent use of pesticides. Labor costs are considered a limiting economic management and the good agronomic practices in the cultivation and they downplay the benefit that can give the adoption of these practices in terms of performance and quality of the fruit of cacao.

Finally, the paper concludes with the presentation of a few technical guidelines that recommend different practices for the management and use of pesticides that mitigate the impacts to environmental resources and a bibliography to the producer recommended for the development of other research in similar areas.