Gravatai is a municipality within the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sul, with great potential for agricultural development based on greater interaction between producers and research and extension services. The main objectives of this study were to understand local perceptions and knowledge about the natural resources of soils and landscapes, as well as the logic of production systems; and to evaluate the linkage of this knowledge with soil classification and evaluation made through academic criteria. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in the five production units (PU) studied, conducting a survey of data related to the PU and workers families, a walk across the PU, and a rapid survey of the soil with the participation of producers and family members. Field observations from family farmers were related to morphological descriptions and the analytic results obtained from soil profile sampling. Results obtained showed that there is systematization of farmers’ knowledge concerning soil and other natural resources, allowing geographic soil distribution, relation to the environment, and criteria for use and management to be established. Results obtained also showed a clear relationship between local and academic knowledge, constituting potential for planning and consolidation of sustainable production systems.
etnopedology; family farm system; soil-environment relationship
