Buenas prácticas agrícolas y sostenibilidad del cultivo de cebolla de rama (Allium fistulosum L.) en la cuenca del lago de Tota (Boyacá, Colombia)

In Colombia, about one-third of the national area planted with green onions is concentrated in the Lake Tota basin (Department of Boyacá). Despite government efforts to promote good agricultural practices (GAP), the crop is still managed under the conventional system, based on intensive planting of varietal monoculture, high use of agrochemicals, and the use of non-composted organic matter. The analysis of the sustainability of production systems becomes more relevant in scenarios such as the Lake Tota basin, which, in addition to offering the largest production of onions in the country, also has strategic ecosystems that provide ecosystem services for local, regional and national stakeholders. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the sustainability of the onion production system based on 25 environmental, socioeconomic, and governance indicators estimated through structured interviews with producers with current GAP certification, expired certification, and those interested in becoming certified. The main results show that having current certification increases the number of sustainability indicators with high scores. However, 12 of the 25 indicators in the three groups had intermediate to low scores, indicating differences between GAP and sustainability, particularly in the environmental component, in which large differences were identified. These findings highlight the importance of identifying new ways, concomitant to GAP, to advance towards crop sustainability, as well as the need to consolidate a market for products with certifications oriented towards this purpose. Crucial here is the growing interest of an important group of producers in the area in adopting certification, together with ethical commitments to achieve processes of productive reconversion of the crop under study towards sustainability, based on GAP.