Dairy cattle environmental impacts in Paraná / Impactos ambientais na bovinocultura leiteira do Paraná

ABSTRACT

Brazil is among the six larger producers of cow milk in the world. In 2010, the national milk production reached 30.7 billion liters, corresponding to 4.8% of total world production, according to official data (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, IBGE). Paraná state has 114,488 milk producers, being responsible for 71% production increase between 1997 and 2006. Besides such remarkable figures, there are still important challenges to be surpassed in milk chain, which includes environmental adequation of livestock production. According to a study published by Banco do Brasil Foundation and Interamerican Institute for Agricultural Cooperation IICA in 2010, social and environmental sustainability are among factors restricting milk chain competitiveness. Thus, this paper aims at assessing the adoption of good environmental practices in milk production, towards sustainable production. Practices included plot rotation system; no-tillage technique; agroecology system; and practices for reducing water and energetic consumptions in milk cattle system. Methodological procedures in this research comprised (a) literature review on milk agribusiness system and environmental adequation; (b) formulation of semi-structured questionnaires, including questions about environmental practices in 2011; (c) data analysis through descriptive statistics. Random sampling included milk pr

RESUMO

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