Tecnologías ancestrales para la sostenibilidad en comunidades periurbanas

The strong pressure exerted by urban planning on rural territories means that they are threatened in their ways of life and production, the exodus of the young generation threatens the loss of ancestral knowledge in crop management, making agricultural activity vulnerable. Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate the sustainability of ancestral technologies around green onion in the community of El Bajo, San Francisco, Zulia, Venezuela. The work is framed in the empirical-inductive exploratory episteme, correspondent a non-experimental ex post facto, transactional design. For the analysis, the Management Sustainability Index was estimated, compound of partial economic, social, environmental and technological indices. For each index, indicators valued on a scale of 0 to 2 were displayed; where 0 represents low sustainability and 2 high sustainability, these were reflected in a questionnaire applied to farmers. In addition, an analysis of main components was carried out, which allowed establishing groups from the generated indices. The results showed that the ancestral technology of producing under the "Barbacoas" system has an average sustainability of 1.22, revealing that the economic factor (IPSE 0.9) represents the lowest contribution to sustainability and the technological factor (IPST 1,45) the one with the greatest contribution, the use of "Barbacoas" is supported by the solid knowledge of ecological agronomic practices that have been used for decades and that have been inherited from generation to generation. The principal components analysis allowed us to identify three components or factors that explain 77.2% of the total variance, group 1, for whom the technology of Barbacoas as a production system (ISPT 60.9%) has greater weight, represented by experienced farmers, older adults; group 2, those who produce based on the generation of sufficient income to satisfy the elementary needs of the family, within these, are the farmers with a medium level of education (IPSE 86.5%) and in group 3 those who attach importance to aspects related to the protection of the environment and its relationship with production (IPSA 87.7%). Despite the fact that there are few active farmers, the results reveal important differences that threaten the continuity of this technology. The path to the sustainability of the territories begins with the union and organization of farmers, promoting the interaction of institutions, government and community.