WHAT'S NEW
end of mission 2006 update:
I decided I would not load my website
with new information since everything is in the final website.
The last two weeks have been crazy
but very constructive. I have got a lot out of this class and the last
month especially because more people have become and really involved and
interesting to work with.
What's new is maybe more what I
haven't managed to do during this semester and which I would like to pursue
in the future if I decide to investigate this subject in more depth:
- the social reality of the people
living in the forest: I could have tried to get in contact with some
people. It would have been more enlightening and we would have been closer
to the reality.
- I have ideas about how to study
the feasability of my plan before trying it out and this could have been
done had I been more efficient. I would have looked at the exact diet of
a farming family, as well as studied the potential productivity of the
plants I proposed. I would have studied the basic functioning of each specie
in the farm to see how well they co-operate. Maybe this would have permitted
me to estimate better how long the farm would have been sustainable and
how long the fallow periods should be.
- Possibility of co-operation between
posseiros and Indians: I proposed this but I don't know how realistic it
is. It would have been nice to find out more about the frame of mind of
these people and see what kind of constructive work can be done with them.
- Analysis of how adaptable the
model of the farm is to other places in the forest.
- Analysis of how adaptable our
solutions are to other Amazonian countries.
- In general, I would have liked
to think in a more global sense and see how the Amazon can be integrated
to the country instead of treating it as a seperate entity. I think
this lacked in our presentation.
This class has been extremely motivating
and challenging. I regret not having understood soon enough how crucial
it was to organize a proper "political system" to coordinate the work of
our teams. It is too bad that it took us so much time to enter the creative
phase and work really together.
A month ago I wrote:
Our team has entered the "solution
phase". My role is to devise strategies for agriculture. I am currently
working on agroforestry to provide sustainable farming practices to the
peasants who had to migrate to the Amazon. The complementary aspect of
this work is to promote agrarian reform to slow down the rates of migration.
Here is how I imagine the organization
of agriculture in Brazil:
-
competitive production and exportation
of cash crops, cattle, cereals in the Southern states by the big corporations
(domestic and foreign markets)
-
land allocated to smaller farmers
in the Southern regions as well for production of staple food (domestic
markets)
-
controlled and sustainable farming
in the Amazon for the peasants who have already migrated there. Use of
agroforestry to grow staple food and timber and use of non-timber forest
products and specialty products.
I have almost finished my research
on the concepts of agroforestry and how they can be applied to the rainforest
(not all of it is on the website because it takes a lot of time to explain
in details and is not that relevant to show the progress of my work; in
the final form of the project, I will fully the concepts which will prove
the most useful). I am now using the maps I have, the GIS images from the
Brazilian MInistry of Agriculture and team 5's database on soils to locate
two patches of land which could serve as experiment and (hopefully) model
for a sustainable farm. I will be finished with this localisation as soon
as I clarify a few technical problems with land. Then I will choose crops
and trees which might grow well together and work with team 10 on strengthening
potential markets for these products. My idea is to choose two very
different places to have two profiles: while both would be near already
existing road or a navigable river, one would be using non-deforested land
and the other would be set on already partly depleted land. This is just
an idea for now. I'm not sure whether it is possible. It might be because
Juliana in my team is doing research on that apparently terrific soil called
terra preta which might help me regenerate depleted land after a long enough
fallow period. Once these models are built (should be done fairly soon)
I will see whether system interactions can make energy flow charts or fit
the system into their equations to show that the farm functions as micro-ecosystem.
Sounds exciting, hope it's realistic! I will also be discussing with team
1 ways to implement these practices and to educate the people about them.
I think we should first carry out experimental farms to prove that they
are profitable and sustainable and then expand them to places where the
people are willing to try. Collaboration is the best way to go about it.
I think that if such farms can work, the peasants will be more than happy
to adopt the practices (as long as they are not too complicated) because
then they won't need to find a new piece of land every five or so years.
Once this plan is devised (biggest
part of my work), I will finish the research on land reform which has already
been partly completed (see landownership)
and, based on the research I have done on the history of agribusiness in
Brazil, I will set up a number of guidelines which could help strengthen
the primary sector in the Southern regions.