Ora-Pro-Nóbis: A Healthy Option on the Table and a Source of Income in the Field

Abstract

The use of ora-pro-nóbis is a viable option to make people's diet healthier. By consuming it, the opportunity to generate income for the rural man is also created, who can work in an agroecological and sustainable way in food production. In view of the above, this work sought to know, through the application of a questionnaire via Google Forms, what the perception of the population about unconventional food plant, more specifically ora-pro-nóbis, a multifunctional plant for human consumption. The semi-structured questionnaire was applied from 09/19/2022 to 10/15/2022, comprising 14 closed questions and two open questions (one about their occupation and the other about their opinion on the subject). In the period of 26 days of availability of the online questionnaire, 102 respondents participated, comprising a female sociodemographic profile of 48% and male of 52%. The predominant age group was between 19 and 40 years old (35 people), with greater representation from the Southeast Region (98 people), from urban areas and at all levels of schooling, with higher education being predominant (48 people). The survey showed that the perception of unconventional food plant comprises 79% of respondents. However, consumption is still not expressive, since 54% do not consume them. As for the ora-pro-nóbis, even though some of the respondents did not know what the term unconventional food plant was about, the plant was known by 81% of the interviewees. By increasing the insertion of ora-pro-nóbis in Brazilian society, it will allow the farmer to have a new option of source of income, reducing his vulnerability to the peculiar seasonality of each cultivated culture.