Sistemas agroflorestais (SAFs): experiências no sudoeste do Paraná

Abstract

The ways of practicing agriculture have undergone changes over the time, becomingversatile and seeking to shape themselves to better meet the farmer's needs.daptations, innovations and technologies have emerged, but the essence ofproducing food still remains. In these terms, agroforestry systems are the agriculturalformat that most resemble to the processes that occur in the nature, as they sufferless impact from human intervention. The implementation of agroforestry in thesouthwestern region of Paraná emerged as a possibility to undertake in the familyfarming, seeking a viable production strategy, with a view to increasing productivity,resulting in increased income, combined with product diversification and sustainableproduction forms, especially in maintaining soil fertility. The implementation ofagroforestry was insert of the Ecological Technologies Project (PTE), which was aninitiative of ASSESOAR, and had the support of the research group in Agroecologyand Family Agriculture at UTFPR Campus Dois Vizinhos. Thus, this research soughtto understand the advances and limits of the proposal for the implementation ofagroforestry in the Southwest of Paraná, with the objective of realizing a technicaland social evaluation of the agroforestry units implemented in the region in the yearsof 2010/2011, and to evaluate the conditions of soils, by comparing the levels of thechemical attributes of these soils between the years 2011 and 2019, seeking tovisualize possible improvements in fertility conditions. The methodology used wasthe application of semi-structured questionnaires to obtain socioeconomic data, inaddition to collecting stratified soil samples at depths of 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm and 10-20cm, submitted to routine analyzes according to the standard protocol. Of the fortyagroforestry implemented in 2010/2011, only eight remain. Of these, three are noteffectively earning income. In general, there was a reduction in soil fertilityparameters in relation to the implantation period, that is, the soil fertility in most SAF’swas not maintained. This is because the SAF’s studied operate with few interventionsand do not conduct intensive management of an SAF. Despite the fact that data fromsoil analysis has not demonstred that AFS's cause an improvement in soil fertility, ithas to be considered that, in almost all AFS's studied (if not all), management wasnot being carried out as advocated for a regenerative SAF. However, it can beaffirmed that agroforestry brings economic growth, as well as providing theimprovement in soil conditions in the implanted area.