ORGANIC PRODUCTION: PROPERTIES CHARACTERIZATION AND MECHANICAL SITUATION ON WEED CONTROL

In the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in organic products demand, which are produced without pesticides use. In Rio Grande do Sul, the Sul-Ecologica Cooperative, composed by 250 families, is the representative for organic products production and sails and was a reference to embody this study. The work aimed to characterize the production standards used by organic farmers for their properties, crops cultivated, methods for weed control, traction used and income. The results evidenced organic farmers to own small properties and use the pull-off and manual weeding process for weed control. The crops produced were, in order of importance, corn, beans, potato, fruits and greenery. Operations for weed control were manually done or with the help of animal traction. Overall, monthly gross income was considered low.