Propuesta metodológica de criterios e indicadores socioambientales de clasificación de umbrales de pobreza con base en un diagnóstico de sistemas productivos en viviendas rurales dispersas en la vereda Potrero Grande - municipio de Choachí

Abstract

A bibliographic review is conducted on the concept of family farming, family agricultural unit, unmet basic needs, poverty, extreme poverty, and minimum vital, as well as a characterization of the rural family, their land, and economic activities is carried out through a sampling of families settled in the Potrero Grande neighborhood in the municipality of Choachí, Cundinamarca. A semi-structured interview methodology is used to determine the composition of the rural family, types of crops and production animals, which will allow establishing the water demand associated with subsistence activities, with the purpose of identifying the maximum productive units to be considered as subsistence activities. Twenty people were interviewed, representing an equal number of families, and the following results were obtained: the gender of the respondents was 50% male and 50% female. The average family composition is 3.6 people. 79% of the members are aged between 15 and 65 years, and the gender composition of the members is 44% women and 56% men. The properties where the rural families are located are distributed along an altitudinal gradient of 2,055 to 2,437 meters above sea level. The area is classified as having a cold thermal floor and a humid climate. The average area of the properties corresponds to 2 hectares, with a total population of 72 people, a total cultivated area of 2.103 hectares, and a total livestock inventory of 18,376 individuals. The designation of the properties for livestock activities corresponds to 65%, agricultural activities to 15%, mixed agricultural activities to 15%, and no economic activity to 5%, The average per capita income reported by respondents for agricultural systems is $443,333, for agro-livestock systems $418,524, and for livestock systems $920,292. A total of 4 farms do not exceed the Extreme Poverty Line with their per capita income. The destination of rural production is for sale, self-consumption, and mixed; in the case of agricultural systems, while for livestock systems there is 0% allocated for self-consumption, agro-livestock systems allocate 33% for self-consumption, while agricultural systems allocate 67% of production to self-consumption. The total water demand in the study area for agricultural use corresponds to a flow of 0.535 l/s, for livestock use 0.380 l/s, and for domestic use and human consumption, a flow of 0.103 l/s is required. Based on these findings, a methodological proposal was designed in five phases: (1) expanded diagnosis of the territory, (2) definition and weighting of socio-environmental indicators, (3) categorization of productive units by levels of subsistence, (4) technical estimation of differentiated water demand, and (5) participatory validation and construction of operational guidelines. This methodology proposes a multidimensional approach, integrating economic, social, technical, environmental, and territorial variables, overcoming the limitations of the purely traditional monetary approach. New indicators are incorporated into the proposal, such as: level of self-consumption, food security, state of the water source, distance to basic services, land tenure, and community organization. Through a vulnerability and subsistence index, households are classified into critical subsistence, vulnerable transition, or productive-commercial. The application of the extreme poverty line and poverty line overcoming model is recommended under different environmental conditions in order to evaluate its use as a classification instrument for subsistence activities in rural families. It is also recommended to implement the public land adjustment service for the purpose of constructing infrastructure works aimed at providing a specific area with irrigation, drainage, or flood protection, with the purpose of increasing the productivity of the agricultural sector, thereby allowing for the development of the Colombian countryside.