Something
as obvious as grazing rotation stabilizes the pasturage and plausibly
prevents its elimination. That is very good news for tropical
soils everywhere. If they also sustain partial forest cover while
they do all this, we may also have natural refertilization underway
also. Recall that cattle grazing is minimal on the uptake of
nutrients.
This
should also lead to groomed forests with a modest investment in
effort. What is clearly needed is an ongoing education program for
farmers on practical methods used elsewhere.
This
also tells us that grazing rotation has been underutilized
everywhere. Of course climate modifies all that elsewhere, but we
need to think about it still. I recall that in the lower mainland
that it is possible to take seven cuttings of alfalfa.
Farming in Brazil’s
Amazonas: Preserving the Hands That Feed
A program in Brazil's
Amazonas helps farmers generate income while preserving the
rainforest
By Ticiane Rossi December 27, 2012
ITATIBA, Brazil—Hit
by drought in his hometown of Marilândia do Sul, Brazilian farmer
Carlos Roberto Koch decided to move to Apuí in the Amazonas State in
2005, where he could take advantage of the more stable climate and
the fertile grounds of the Amazon forest.
He started farming
grains once again, and the outlook was optimistic. Having learned a
lesson from his first farming experience, however, Koch didn’t take
any chances, and started farming cattle and developing pasture land
on the side as well.
What started as an alternative means of income gradually became
his main source of livelihood, and farming cattle and selling dairy
products became his main focus as they proved to be more stable in
the long term compered to farming grains.
But it wasn’t long
before Koch’s consciousness caught up with him: Like many others
farming along the Amazon rainforest, Koch’s profession was
contributing to the demise of the world’s largest rainforest; it
wasn’t hard to see that he was gradually destroying his own source
of income as well.
Besides logging,
mining, oil exploration, and construction of infrastructure, cattle
farming and expansion of agricultural land along the Amazon
rainforest are one of the main factors of deforestation of the
Amazon.
According to the
Amazon Network for Georeferenced Environmental Information (RAISG),
pastures account for over 90 percent of the farmland along the
Amazon.
“The issue of
deforestation of Amazon is an economic issue,” says Mariana Pavan,
a researcher with the Institute for Conservation and Development of
the Amazonas (IDESAM), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to
preserving the Amazon and promoting the use of sustainable resources.
“The reality is that
Amazon deforestation occurs because people need to make a living.”
That is why Pavan and
other researchers with IDESAM created a program that, with the
contribution from the government and people in Apuí, focuses on
maintaining income for the farmers while helping to preserve the
rainforest.
Since the time of its
inception in 2005, the program has been tested with five farming
families, including Koch’s.
One of the main
elements in IDESAM’s program is the development of a “rotational
grazing system.”
Under this project, an
area of around 30 hectares is divided into seven equal segments, and
livestock is allowed to feed in each area for a period of seven days,
while the grass in the other areas is left to grow and recover. This
way, cattle always have good quality grass to feed on, and thanks to
the optimized grass recovery system, the number of animals that can
feed per unit area has increased three to four times compared to a
traditional pasture. This removes the need to deforest new areas
of the Amazon to develop more pastureland.
[ why
was this not figured out decades ago? - I think we are dealing with
human laziness, it costs time to produce fences and to watch and move
animals. Arclein ]
IDESAM also has a
number of other projects directed at preserving the rainforest,
including reforestation of permanent preservation areas along the
rivers [ At the Least!! -
Arclein], as well as projects directed at maximizing
the income of local farmers, including the development of a cattle
fattening model, a model for optimizing dairy production, and other
initiatives.
Koch, who is also the
president of the rural union of Apuí, says the program has been a
success, and besides minimizing their environmental impact, he and
other farmers in the program have been able to triple the number of
their cattle thanks to the savings and optimization achieved through
the program.
“Our motto today is
forest preservation and maintaining man in the field,” Koch says.
Gabriel Cardoso
Carrero, the program coordinator for climate change and environmental
services at IDESAM, says the main challenge in implementing IDESAM’s
programs is helping people change their habits, and having them
become used to continually changing their habits.
“We have good
relations with the farmers, thanks to several years of interaction;
however, many [farmers] have no confidence that the project will
succeed,” Carrero says.
“There had been
several projects before IDESAM’s where farmers promised [to
implement changes] and nothing happened. But there are also projects
that really lead to change.”
He thinks one of the
reasons some programs fail is that they are not developed keeping in
mind the needs of the farmers.
“I think the
government needs to be more realistic in their initiatives because
they are not usually very connected with what happens on the field,”
he says.
As for Koch, he is
satisfied knowing that he can generate income while playing a role in
preserving the rainforest at the same time.
He now wants to show
to the government that the IDESAM program has been a success, and
encourage authorities to improve farming production in existing sites
and prevent the development of new areas, so that no more areas of
the Amazon have to be deforested.
“The hands that
produce are the same that preserve,” says the 49-year-old farmer.
“If you provide
living conditions for farmers, they will become guardians of the
forest.
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