Assessing the research and education approaches of the agricultural industry in the middle north of state of Mato Grosso, Brazil

Abstract

Agriculture is of great importance for the country and for the state of Mato Grosso. As a result, the development of strategies that enhance sustainable development and contribute to building an educated society are commitments of the Brazilian Program for Research and Education in Agricultural Sustainability, AgriSciences. In addition, the interaction and participation of different teaching, research and extension institutions, together with local actors, represents an important synergy for the scientific-technological development of the institutions, as well as for identifying the challenges and demands of society. The objective was to develop an initial understanding of the research and training needs of farmers and agricultural professionals in the mid-north of the state of Mato Grosso, in the municipalities of Nova Mutum, Lucas do Rio Verde, Sorriso and Sinop. It is justified to understand how, when and where farmers and agricultural professionals are training and learn about the scenario and which training methods they access, check the contribution of the Federal University of Mato Grosso in the region in which it is located, in a regional group present the challenges posed by the development of the agricultural sector and show what makes it necessary as the inclusion of new learning methods. As a method, questionnaires were formulated to carry out a descriptive analysis of the current panorama of the region. The Needs Assessment Circuit (NAC) has been validated and considered as the most practical and informative data collection method of the AgriSciences research and extension project. In Chapter II it was possible to identify the training habits and the perspectives of agricultural professionals. This project was registered and authorized by the bodies responsible for extension projects at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). For the development of this work, through rural extension actions, responses were obtained from ninety-four (94) farmers and eighty-nine (89) agricultural professionals. Farmers have a high level of education, although professional qualification is not associated with technical knowledge, training programs can transform the reality of the Brazilian countryside. The transformation of production systems with mitigation strategies contributes to a more sustainable productivity. In this sense, agricultural professionals were not used to training and sharing information in a 100% online format. What is the weight of distance training, how will the method of acquiring technical information be innovative, in a routine that requires long hours in the field? Professionals seek to meet demands efficiently, prioritizing the time available to them and indicating the off-season period as the best time to receive training. The research achieved has great relevance for the academic community, as it enabled the construction of new hypotheses that can be transformed into future research.