The question of the use of ecosystem services has been widely explored in economics since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) in 2005. However, the issue of the capability to use these services for agricultural production systems in order to reduce the pressure that they cause to the environment has been little explored. What kind of information brings the ecosystem services assessment as part of a systemic modelling of agricultural activity? How can their modifications in time and space result in significant environmental impacts? In which way can the capability approach be used to understand the impact reduction of each farmers categories? This study takes place in Nova Friburgo (RJ-Brazil), in a region composed of several communities of vegetable crop family farmers. The methodology is based primarily on historical and comparative analysis of the organisation of two socio-economic production systems distinguished by the type of work force employed (sharecroppers or not). Secondly, we use the MEA's classification and valuation of ecosystem services. For both production systems, we finally make a qualitative comparison of the two sets of capabilities. Results show that, from the second half of the twentieth century, farming practices have been simplified due to the intensification of crops systems. For both production systems studied, the use of ecosystem services has significantly decreased over the period and gave rise to high environmental impacts. However, the analysis of the capabilities reveals that inequalities do exist between farmer categories of both systems: they have an unequal access to new ecosystem services which could contribute to the reduction of environmental impacts. Our suggested approach can help to design new models of transition in order to promote bettertargeted policies.
