Research on agricultural farming systems in the Brazilian Amazon Forest

The Amazon region, besides being the most important biological patrimony of the earth, certainly is the most active agricultural frontier of the world. Thousands of agricultural producers make profit from the natural resources without taking into account the sustainability, and therefore agriculture and animal husbandry are taken as the main forces of deforestation and degradation. In the last fifteen years, the systemic approach applied to the Brazilian agricultural research has allowed to answer the main demands of the productive sector, initially for the bigger producers and lately for the small producers as well, especially for cattle ranching[...]. Nevertheless, the large scale dissemination of more suitable agricultural systems and practices seems to promote, indirectly, the advance of the agricultural frontier and the deforestation process due the availability of a very large space. In fact, the improvement of life conditions of the farmers comes basically from the expansion of the cultivated area detrimentally to the forest ecosystem. In this manner, it is verified that the concept of sustainability in the production systems remains restricted to scientific and political speeches, generally outside Amazon reality, notwithstanding a few attempts limited in time and in space. The present dilemma with respect to the Amazon region is to identify the type of land use system to give priority; how systemic research can contribute to equate these questions apparently contradictories: farmers aspirations and preservation of the natural resources, every day more threatened[...].

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Tourrand, Jean-François, Simao Neto, Miguel, Gomes Vale, W.
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	CIRAD-EMVT
Subjects:	F08 - Systèmes et modes de culture, P01 - Conservation de la nature et ressources foncières, gestion des ressources, colonisation rurale, système de production, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6524, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6706, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_a175b273, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_32372, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1070,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/401065/
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