Agronomic Engineering students' perceptions about agroecology: a case study at a public university in Tocantins

The present study approaches the perceptions about agroecology of 30 university students from the 2nd and 8th periods of the Agronomic Engineering course at the State University of Tocantins. In order to collect the data, the students answered a questionnaire consisting of nineteen questions with multiple choices, but some questions were asked for justifications. The answers given to the closed questions of this qualitative-qualitative research were categorized in percentages and the open questions by the technique of content analysis. A significant portion of the students said their family members own rural property. Still, the students of the two periods mentioned that they have already heard about agroecology and conceptualized as an agriculture that uses less aggressive means to the environment. A significant portion is unaware of agroecological rural producers in Tocantins. However, for most of the 8th period students, future farming will be based on the agroecology principles, while the 2nd period students believe it will be fully technized. In addition, most of the students expressed interest in participating in research and/or extension projects in this area; since they know about sustainable food production practices and have already consumed some agroecological product. However, a great amount of students is unaware of the environmental service concept and believes that soy monoculture is a financially good initiative and environmentally poor.