This report shows some initial results about the research project entitled GlobalOrg, on a Brazilian case study, investigating the sustainability of tropical fruit organic farming in a global food chains perspective. It was performed an analysis about the production strategies of certified units of a familiar smalholders cooperative from Itápolis-SP-Brazil.
This text analyses the development of organic farming in Brazil. It shows the great variability of social models of organic production recognised by Brazilian Law: organic, agroecological, ecological or biodynamic agriculture, permaculture etc.. It depicts how the political and social concerns in the spheres of family farming and environment caused the reorganisation of production systems, in the agricultural practices and n the new relationships with the market and with natural resources.
Le développement de l'agriculture organique au Brésil prend des formes multiples. Au travers de leur expérience de l'AO, dans une communauté proche de trois métropoles, de petits maraîchers d'Ibiúna (São Paulo) créent des entités collectives et expérimentent de nouvelles pratiques sociales.
Family farms are by far the most numerous component of the agricultural sector in the Brazilian Amazon. However socially vital for the development of the region, these small landholdings' agricultural and cattle ranching activities frequently overdraw and degrade natural resources, threatening important ecosystem services. Predominant agricultural practices have been marked by shifting cultivation, with intense use of fire and low productivity, causing high rate of destruction of natural forests.
European agriculture is facing increasing economic, environmental, institutional, and social challenges, from changes in demographic trends to the effects of climate change. In this context of high instability, the agricultural sector in Europe needs to improve its resilience and sustainability. Local assessments and strategies at the farming system level are needed, and this paper focuses on a hazelnut farming system in central Italy. For the assessment, a participatory approach was used, based on a stakeholder workshop.
The framework is designed to assess resilience to specific challenges (specified resilience) as well as a farming system's capacity to deal with the unknown, uncertainty and surprise (general resilience). The framework provides a heuristic to analyze system properties, challenges (shocks, long-term stresses), indicators to measure the performance of system functions, resilience capacities and resilience-enhancing attributes. Capacities and attributes refer to adaptive cycle processes of agricultural practices, farm demographics, governance and risk management.
The challenges faced by agricultural systems call for an advance in risk management (RM) assessments. This research identifies and discusses potential improvements to RM across 11 European Union (EU) farming systems (FS). The paper proposes a comprehensive, participatory approach that accounts for multi-stakeholder perspectives relying on 11 focus groups for brainstorming and gathering suggestions to improve RM.