ASSESSING SUSTAINABILITY AFTER AN AGRO-ECOLOGICAL INTERVENTION, IN THE SUBTROPICS OF THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF MEXICO

Abstract

The sustainability of the university farm Temascaltepec belonging to the ‘Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México’ was evaluated through indicators. Based on the characterization and diagnosis, a proposal for natural resources sustainable management was designed. In order to install, operate and evaluate some components of this proposal, experiments for three years were realized, these included: the benchmarking in monoculture and association using lots for fodder production, for multipurpose trees, and for containing erosion with vegetative techniques. The forage yields gradually improved during the evaluation period, and forages association showed greater quality. The arboreal species showed divergent degrees of adaptation and development due to adverse ground and climate conditions. The vegetative techniques were effective to decrease the accelerated erosive processes. The comparison of the final state of the system with the initial state allows us to observe notable improvements for most of the environmental and social indicators, although the profitability was negative, due to the high cost of the components installation. The relevance of this methodology, for the design and operation of the proposal and for sustainability evaluation, was verified as much.