A difusão da agricultura orgânica de base agroecológica: Uma discussão sobre as experiências de Río Cuarto (Argentina) e Seropédica (Brasil)

Abstract

Organic agriculture has in the absence of pesticide use its most striking feature. Organic production systems aim aspects such as offering healthy products, conservation of biological diversity of natural ecosystems, maintaining or increasing soil fertility, the recycling of organic origin, the increased soil biological activity, the use of renewable resources, ways of reducing contamination in agricultural activity and encouraging the regionalization of production and trade of organic products. In urban or peri-urban areas, the cultivation of food crops in organic production or agroecology-based systems, in particular the formation of private or community gardens, due to the cost of production and scientific and technological knowledge that it entails, is an opportunity for the livelihood of populations in social risk situations and in order to generate income by marketing the surplus production with higher added value. In this work, the overall objective is to assess the institutional arrangements of organic agriculture related to R&D process and socialization and appropriation of knowledge related to Agroecology, and the specific objectives are to analyze the trajectory of the programs/ activities of scientific knowledge and technological transfer that work with organic agriculture and based on agroecology, in Río Cuarto and Seropédica; to examine how the experience and knowledge of farmers interfere in making agricultural production decisions in the face of public policy research and technology transfer; and identify to what extent, stock research and technology transfer, as “Fazendinha Agroecológica Km 47” (Integrated Agroecological Production System), in Seropédica, and the application of ProHuerta program in Río Cuarto, assist in the construction and dissemination of knowledge for economic and environmental sustainability based on agroecology. The field research was conducted in the municipalities of Río Cuarto (Cordoba, Argentina) and Seropédica (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) where universities, nationwide agricultural research institutions and other local institutions carry out activities related to the transfer of knowledge and technology, and thus stimulate the practice of organic agriculture for the general population or for family farmers in urban or peri-urban environment. The methodology was qualitative research with in-depth interviews with farmers and professionals working in local institutions and participant observation. The surveyed institutional arrangements of organic agriculture generate knowledge or interact with the appropriation process of this knowledge by the audience, and the experiences of Río Cuarto and Seropédica reveal the practice of organic agriculture from the perspective of promoting healthy eating, respect for the environment and strengthening family farming, to the extent that alternative marketing channels can be strengthened and enable the farmer to drain the production in fairer and more compensatory conditions.