Using emergy synthesis to determine the sustainability of a goat production system

Abstract

The dairy sector, particularly that which comes from goat production systems, represents a link of eminent importance for Cuba, since the excellent nutritional quality of this food makes it indispensable in the human diet, even for people with health limitations. However, the majority of conventional characteristics in the management trends that prevail in current goat farming are far from an approach that would allow them to be sustainable, as they depend to a large extent on external, non-renewable resources that threaten the stability of production. Therefore, in order to facilitate decision-making with a view to agroecological transition, research was carried out with the aim of determining the sustainability of the goat production system on the El Guayabal farm, using the methodology of emergy synthesis for the years 2023 and 2024. The system's diagram was designed; energy synthesis tables were elaborated and the traditional and modified energy performance indices were calculated and interpreted: transformity, renewability, energy yield ratio, energy investment ratio, environmental load ratio and sustainability index; also, the economic indicators were determined: net income, total costs, net benefit and benefit/cost ratio. The system registered high energy costs, low renewable supports, adequate potential to produce primary energy, high external dependency, low environmental impact and unsustainability; from an economic point of view the productions were profitable. The profitability of the agroecosystem is validated by classical economic analysis, but the emergy synthesis evaluation demonstrates its unsustainability over time.