SUSTAINABILITY OF GRAPE (Vitis vinifera L.) -PRODUCING FARMS FOR PISCO IN THE ICA-PERU REGION

Abstract

Background. Grape cultivation in Peru is one of the most important fruit-growing activities due to its extension, value of production and for being a raw material for the national wine industry. Objective. The study was carried out with the aim of determining the sustainability of the vine producing farms for Pisco in the Ica region, Peru, with a holistic and multidimensional approach. Methodology. The unit of analysis was the farms with vine cultivation. Surveys with structured questions were applied to sample of 16 farms affiliated with the Association of Producers of Pisco and wines of Ica. Ten indicators and 34 sub-indicators related to economic, environmental and social aspects were identified. The indicators were standardized on a scale of 0 to 4 and weighted according to the degree of influence for the sustainability of the production units. A farm was considered sustainable if the overall sustainability index is greater than two and none of the three dimensions evaluated is less than two. Results. An overall sustainability index of 2.39 was found. The social indicator was the one with the highest contribution with 2.84; followed by the economic indicator with 2.56 and the environmental indicator with 1.78. Implications. The cultivation of table grapes and for the wine industry is profitable and offers producers better socio-economic conditions; however, monoculture production systems with a high dependence on external inputs can have unpredictable environmental effects on the stability of grape production systems. Conclusion. The grape production units in the economic and social dimension reached acceptable levels of sustainability; while in the environmental dimension it did not reach the minimum sustainability threshold; therefore, according to the methodology used, the farms analyzed have low levels on the sustainability scale used.