Somethingas obvious as grazing rotation stabilizes the pasturage and plausiblyprevents its elimination. That is very good news for tropicalsoils everywhere. If they also sustain partial forest cover whilethey do all this, we may also have natural refertilization underwayalso. Recall that cattle grazing is minimal on the uptake ofnutrients.
Thisshould also lead to groomed forests with a modest investment ineffort. What is clearly needed is an ongoing education program forfarmers on practical methods used elsewhere.
Thisalso tells us that grazing rotation has been underutilizedeverywhere. Of course climate modifies all that elsewhere, but weneed to think about it still. I recall that in the lower mainlandthat it is possible to take seven cuttings of alfalfa.
Farming in Brazil’sAmazonas: Preserving the Hands That Feed
A program in Brazil'sAmazonas helps farmers generate income while preserving therainforest
By Ticiane Rossi December 27, 2012
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/farming-in-brazil-s-amazonas-preserving-the-hands-that-feed-328943.html
ITATIBA, Brazil—Hitby drought in his hometown of Marilândia do Sul, Brazilian farmerCarlos Roberto Koch decided to move to Apuà in the Amazonas State in2005, where he could take advantage of the more stable climate andthe fertile grounds of the Amazon forest.
He started farminggrains once again, and the outlook was optimistic. Having learned alesson from his first farming experience, however, Koch didn’t takeany chances, and started farming cattle and developing pasture landon the side as well.
What started as an alternative means of income gradually becamehis main source of livelihood, and farming cattle and selling dairyproducts became his main focus as they proved to be more stable inthe long term compered to farming grains.
But it wasn’t longbefore Koch’s consciousness caught up with him: Like many othersfarming along the Amazon rainforest, Koch’s profession wascontributing to the demise of the world’s largest rainforest; itwasn’t hard to see that he was gradually destroying his own sourceof income as well.
Besides logging,mining, oil exploration, and construction of infrastructure, cattlefarming and expansion of agricultural land along the Amazonrainforest are one of the main factors of deforestation of theAmazon.
According to theAmazon Network for Georeferenced Environmental Information (RAISG),pastures account for over 90 percent of the farmland along theAmazon.
“The issue ofdeforestation of Amazon is an economic issue,” says Mariana Pavan,a researcher with the Institute for Conservation and Development ofthe Amazonas (IDESAM), a nongovernmental organization dedicated topreserving the Amazon and promoting the use of sustainable resources.
“The reality is thatAmazon deforestation occurs because people need to make a living.”
That is why Pavan andother researchers with IDESAM created a program that, with thecontribution from the government and people in ApuÃ, focuses onmaintaining income for the farmers while helping to preserve therainforest.
Since the time of itsinception in 2005, the program has been tested with five farmingfamilies, including Koch’s.
One of the mainelements in IDESAM’s program is the development of a “rotationalgrazing system.” Under this project, anarea of around 30 hectares is divided into seven equal segments, andlivestock 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. Thisway, cattle always have good quality grass to feed on, and thanks tothe optimized grass recovery system, the number of animals that canfeed per unit area has increased three to four times compared to atraditional pasture. This removes the need to deforest new areasof the Amazon to develop more pastureland.
[ whywas this not figured out decades ago? - I think we are dealing withhuman laziness, it costs time to produce fences and to watch and moveanimals. Arclein ]
IDESAM also has anumber of other projects directed at preserving the rainforest,including reforestation of permanent preservation areas along therivers [ At the Least!! -Arclein], as well as projects directed at maximizingthe income of local farmers, including the development of a cattlefattening model, a model for optimizing dairy production, and otherinitiatives.
Koch, who is also thepresident of the rural union of ApuÃ, says the program has been asuccess, and besides minimizing their environmental impact, he andother farmers in the program have been able to triple the number oftheir cattle thanks to the savings and optimization achieved throughthe program.
“Our motto today isforest preservation and maintaining man in the field,” Koch says.
Gabriel CardosoCarrero, the program coordinator for climate change and environmentalservices at IDESAM, says the main challenge in implementing IDESAM’sprograms is helping people change their habits, and having thembecome used to continually changing their habits.
“We have goodrelations with the farmers, thanks to several years of interaction;however, many [farmers] have no confidence that the project willsucceed,” Carrero says.
“There had beenseveral projects before IDESAM’s where farmers promised [toimplement changes] and nothing happened. But there are also projectsthat really lead to change.”
He thinks one of thereasons some programs fail is that they are not developed keeping inmind the needs of the farmers.
“I think thegovernment needs to be more realistic in their initiatives becausethey are not usually very connected with what happens on the field,”he says.
As for Koch, he issatisfied knowing that he can generate income while playing a role inpreserving the rainforest at the same time.
He now wants to showto the government that the IDESAM program has been a success, andencourage authorities to improve farming production in existing sitesand prevent the development of new areas, so that no more areas ofthe Amazon have to be deforested.
“The hands thatproduce are the same that preserve,” says the 49-year-old farmer.
“If you provideliving conditions for farmers, they will become guardians of theforest.
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