The word Agriculture comes from Latin and is composed of two terms: “ager, agri” – which means of the field, and “cultura” – which means culture, utilization. Agriculture is, therefore, the art of cultivating fields and domesticating animals, with a purely utilitarian purpose (Dias and Carneiro, 1953).
It originated about ten thousand years ago, when the first plants began to be cultivated, undergoing a series of modifications as a consequence of domestication (Paterniani, 2004).
More than 500 years ago, before the Portuguese landed in Brazil, the Indigenous people had their way of living and producing, transforming the forests and, in a way, co-evolving. Fire was an efficient tool of Indigenous agriculture. At the end of the dry season, they would fell the vegetation in a strip of forest, after natural drying, and set it on fire. The ashes fertilized the soils. This technique allowed for cycles of annual crops, which diversified over the centuries. No agricultural tools were required. The work was entirely manual. In abandoned areas, regeneration followed the natural course: from abandoned cultivation to secondary forest and finally to mature forest (National Geographic Magazine, 2007).
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first cities emerged, along with the need for varied food. Family farming that supplied the cities had a variety of crops, used manual labor, animal traction, crop rotation, and fallow (resting the land). Tired of working on lands that did not belong to them, some farming families ventured into the forest, claiming territories and creating their fields. Thus began, around the large farms, peasant production carried out with the labor of the family itself, aimed at subsistence and supplying local markets while the production of large estates continued to be destined for export. With the growth of cities, food production needed to increase.
Still during the 20th century, a series of scientific and technological discoveries worldwide, such as chemical fertilizers, genetic improvement of plants, and internal combustion engines, enabled the progressive abandonment of rotational systems and the divorce of animal and plant production, consolidating the chemical, mechanical, and genetic production standard practiced on large estates for the last sixty years. This pattern, later termed “conventional agriculture,” intensified after World War II, culminating in the 1970s with the so-called Green Revolution. Thus, the traditional knowledge of the farmer was being replaced by machines and agrochemicals (Instituto Giramundo Mutuando, 2005).
The agricultural policy of the green revolution included guarantees of minimum prices; subsidized rural credit; technological development; and tax incentives. The distribution of the technological package, accompanied by the industrialization of cities, promoted large-scale migration of rural inhabitants to urban centers, causing rural exodus. In just 20 years (1960 – 1980), this model ensured the migration of 28 million Brazilians; by 1995, about 80% of the Brazilian population already lived in urban centers (IBGE, 1997; Guzman, 1998).
The intensification of production beyond the capacity of the areas soon presented the first impacts: destruction of forests; cultural and genetic erosion; soil erosion; siltation and contamination of rivers, farmers, and food (Guzman, 1998).
To enable a change in this agricultural scenario, humanity has been seeking to establish less aggressive agricultural models to the environment, capable of protecting natural resources and being sustainable over time. At a global level, there is a consensus on the need for new agricultural development strategies to ensure production that aligns with environmental quality. Among other objectives, the goals pursued are: food security, eradicating poverty, and conserving and protecting the environment and natural resources (Antonio, 2006).
Due to these objectives, it becomes clear why the practice of sustainable agriculture is essential, which according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), in a conference held in conjunction with the Dutch government in Hertogenbosh in 1991, states: “Sustainable agriculture is the management and conservation of natural resources and the orientation of technological and institutional changes in such a way as to ensure the satisfaction of human needs continuously for present and future generations. Such sustainable development conserves soil, water, animal and plant genetic resources; does not degrade the environment; is technically appropriate, economically viable, and socially acceptable.”
In the mid-90s, Agroecology (“ecology of agricultural systems”) emerged, representing a set of techniques and concepts aimed at producing healthier and more natural food, with the basic principle of rational use of natural resources (1). Agroecology is understood as a science that establishes the foundations for building sustainable production systems and strategies for sustainable rural development (Caporal, 2004).
Agroecology is a new approach to agriculture that integrates various agronomic, ecological, and socioeconomic aspects in assessing the effects of agricultural techniques on food production. Strictly speaking, agroecology can be said to be the scientific-technological basis for sustainable agriculture, that is, production in a natural way (Gotcsh, 2002).
According to Altieri (1995), agroecology proves the ecological bases for the conservation of biodiversity in agriculture, restoring the ecological balance of agroecosystems to achieve sustainable production.
Agroecology takes agroecosystems (an agricultural property understood as an ecosystem) as the unit of study, which are seen as a living and complex system embedded in nature rich in diversity. These, therefore, are systems where mineral cycles, energy transformations, biological processes, and socioeconomic relations must be investigated and analyzed as a whole. Thus, agroecology corresponds to the challenge of finding strategies that allow understanding the nature of agriculture as a co-evolution between culture and the natural environment from a historical perspective, in order to maintain or recover, depending on the state of the agroecosystem in question, its original balance. However, it does not aim to eliminate human intervention in ecosystems but rather to understand the inherent complexity of this intervention in each space (Altieri, 1992).
The product resulting from agroecological-based productions is growing worldwide at an accelerated pace of 20 to 30% per year. It is estimated that global trade currently moves around 20 billion dollars, with Europe, the United States, and Japan being the largest producers and consumers (Instituto Giramundo Mutuando, 2005).
It should be emphasized that agroecology places great importance on traditional family farming, Indigenous, quilombola, and peasant agriculture, as a highlighted space for the development of ecological rationality (2).
It is concluded that the great advantage of this system is the cultivation of several overlapping monocultures in the same area, taking advantage of all the different productive cycles throughout the year, adding variety to the diet and value to the farmer's business.
This model is not only viable but also lower in cost and higher in profit. Traditional agricultural techniques, such as fire, weeding, and plowing, are replaced by sustainable technologies that increase the quantity and quality of life of the species in the system.
References
ALTIERI, M.A.; Biodiversity, agroecology, and pest management. CETAL. Valparaíso. 1992.
ALTIERI, M.A.; Traditional Agriculture. Agroecology: The science of sustainable agriculture. 2nd Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 1995.
ANTONIO, D.B.A.; Agroecological production systems in the municipality of Botucatu – SP. 2006. 7f. Undergraduate Thesis in Forest Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, São Paulo State University, Botucatu – SP. 2006.
CAPORAL, F.R.; Agroecology: some concepts and principles. By Francisco Roberto Caporal and José Antonio Costabeber. MDA/SAF/DATER-IICA. Brasília – DF. 2004.
DIAS, J.D.O.; CARNEIRO, H. General agriculture. Vol I. Didactic Series No. 3. Rio de Janeiro. 1953. 218p.
FAO (State of the world’s Forest). Urban and Periurban Agriculture. Agriculture Committee. Rome. 1999.
GOTSCH, E.; Importance of SAFs in the recovery of degraded areas. Lecture given during the IV CBSaf in October 2002.
GUZMAN, E.S.; Ecological agriculture in Brazil. ETSIAM/ISE. University of Córdoba. 1998. 70p.
IBGE. Statistical Yearbook of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro. 1997.
Instituto Giramundo Mutuando. The Agroecological Handbook. Criação Ltda Publishing, Botucatu – SP. 2005.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. May 2007. Year 7. No. 86. p. 60-71.
(1) Available at: www.ambientebrasil.com.br. Accessed on: August 22, 2007.
(2) Available at: www.embrapa.br Accessed on: September 2, 2007.
