Management of Secondary Vegetation in Amazonian Agriculture Without the Use of Fire

Enter multiple e-mails separated by comma.

In the greatest part of the Brazilian Amazon, family farming is practiced with the system of forest slash and burn. This practice is questionable due to the consequential loss of nutrients, the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere and the risk of uncontrollable fires. This agricultural system keeps productivity levels which decrease with the succession of fires and short set-aside periods. Systems of integrated management of natural resources which involve mitigating technologies of environmental impacts, such as no-fire agriculture and agro-forest systems, represent sustainable alternatives to small farmers. Oriental Amazon Embrapa has been developing alternatives to replace the traditional method of slash-and-burn for the cut-and-grind system, applied to secondary vegetation and associated to its enrichment, in order to promote accumulation of nutrients and biomass in the soil. The use techniques of ground cover recommended with this technology affect positively the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil, in addition to the fact that its adoption benefits the area's environmental situation as a result of the presence of set-aside secondary vegetation, and consequently reflects in less carbon monoxide emissions, more humidity kept in the atmosphere and protection against leaching, due to the presence of roots. Thus, it is a technological, economic and environmental alternative, and sustainable to the system of family farming in the entire Amazon region (Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Pará, Roraima, Rondônia and Pre-Amazonian Maranhão), pointing out the need to adjust in order to tend to local demands. This project aims to continue research actions in order to answer matters of long-term attributes associated to economical and environmental sustainability, replacement of conventional investments in order to promote an agro-ecological transition with the use of green fertilizers, organic compounds and replacement of soluble fertilizers, impact evaluations (sustainability, social and economic indicators), to offer alternatives to promote the diversification of production with perennial species in agro-forest systems, increasing the offer of environmental services, to offer alternatives of degraded grassland recovery based in the management of species of secondary vegetation, especially those of legumes, and also to intensity the adaptation and validation of technologies tested in other states of the Brazilian Amazon. The main expected result is the offer increase of sustainable systems to manage farming lands and natural resources of family farming, mitigating environmental impacts over the Amazonian biome, as well as the impacts on climate and in the current scenario of global warming.

Ecosystem: Amazonic

Status: Completed Start date: Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2010 Conclusion date: Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2014

Head Unit: Embrapa Eastern Amazon

Project leader: Celia Maria Braga Calandrini de Azevedo

Contact: celia.azevedo@embrapa.br