José Humberto Valadares Xavier

Conservation agriculture cropping systems in temperate and tropical conditions, performances and impacts. A review

Nowadays, in a context of climate change, economical uncertainties and social pressure to mitigate agriculture externalities, farmers have to adopt new cropping systems to achieve a sustainable and cost-effective grain production. Conservation agriculture consists of a range of cropping systems based on a combination of three main principles: (1) soil tillage reduction, (2) soil protection by organic residues and (3) diversification in crop rotation. Conservation agriculture has been promoted as a way to reduce production costs, soil erosion and soil fertility degradation under both tropical and temperate conditions. Conservation agriculture-based cropping systems have diffused widely under Brazilian large-scale farms’ conditions and more recently in Europe in the context of medium-size mechanized farms. Their diffusion, however, is still limited under small-scale non-mechanized farms’ conditions of tropical countries. To assess the advantages and limits of such new cropping systems, this article compares experiences with conservation agriculture from the tropical Cerrado region of Brazil and from temperate conditions of Europe. It focusses on agronomic performances, environmental impacts and economical results. Conservation agriculture systems appear to be interesting options to achieve sustainable and intensive crop production under different agroecological environments because they use efficiently available resources and maintain soil fertility. However, this mostly results from the permanent presence of an organic mulch on the soil surface and the incorporation of cover crops in the rotations. Such modifications require a significant reorganization of the production process at farm level, and when facing technical or socioeconomic constraints, most farmers usually opt for applying only partially the three main principles of conservation agriculture. Investigating more fully the consequences of such partial implementation of conservation agriculture principles on its actual efficiency and assessing the most efficient participatory approaches needed to adapt conservation agriculture principles to local conditions and farming systems are top priorities for future research.

A descentralização da política nacional de ATER: uma experiência nos assentamentos de reforma agrária no noroeste mineiro - Brasil

A descentralizacao de politicas publicas no pais permitiu a participacao da sociedade civil organizada em diferentes âmbitos de sua formulacao, execucao e fiscalizacao. Desde a decada de 1990, a universalizacao desse processo vem se consolidando no meio rural por meio da operacionalizacao de servicos de assistencia tecnica e extensao rural realizada por organizacoes nao governamentais. Com a regulamentacao da Politica Nacional de Assistencia Tecnica e Extensao Rural, houve uma ampliacao na participacao das organizacoes sociais ligadas aos movimentos sociais de agricultores familiares. Este texto aborda uma experiencia vivenciada por agentes de desenvolvimento em assentamentos de reforma agraria do municipio de Unai, Minas Gerais.

Family and collective logics in land reform settlements in Unai (Minais Gerais State, Brazil)

The public policy of agrarian reform in Brazil still gives priority to collective organization of the settlement, of the services and even of the agricultural production. This collective logic is promoted and institutionalized both by the State and the agrarian reform movements. Paradoxically, the settlement is based on the concession of individual land plots to a public formed mostly by former wage-earners, in the context of the promotion of family-based economic enterprises. This paper analyzes the origins and consequences of the interaction between these logics, focusing the case of land reform settlements of the municipality of Unai, in the state of Minas Gerais. There is a tension between the individual interest of “the new land-owner”, the logic of the family and the collective logic dependent on the modalities of public policy. The obligation of familiar or communitarian solidarity is fed by the precariousness of the settlement process and by the unifying ideology and human values. The results in Unai teach us that: a) the budgets and the instruments of public policy for agrarian reform are not adapted or suitable, and may become contradictory and lead to conflicts; b) in spite of such conditions and institutional environment, tools and methods for social construction of partnerships allow for a synergy between individual, familiar and collective logics; c) at the local level, the educational effort is indispensable in order to strengthen the dignity and identity of the settlers, but it will be efficient only on medium or long term.