Sustainable Management of Coffee Production in the Cerrado Mineiro: The Contribution of Kaolin to Commercial Crops

Abstract

The coffee culture occupies a prominent role in the national context, and it should be noted that the planting of coffee in full sun in Brazil began after the liberation of slaves with the reduction of labor at low cost. In general, the degree of luminosity is the main factor responsible for coffee production because it affects the vegetative and floral buds, which later become the fruits. There are ways to mitigate the loss of productivity caused by climatic adversities, specifically the increase in air temperature and excessive solar radiation. In this context, the present work aimed to discuss the application of kaolin in commercial coffee crops with rural producers in the cerrado of Minas Gerais, as a sustainable agricultural production practice. For this, a field research was carried out with sixteen coffee farmers who grow Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.), in full sun, in the Cerrado biome of Minas Gerais, and who spray the mineral kaolin during the production management of the crops. It can be observed that the farmers interviewed seek to understand and apply some kind of sustainable management for the crop and that most see the application of kaolin in a positive way, being necessary, however, to implement environmental education projects that deal better with this topic among coffee growers in general.