Tropical Regenerative Agriculture

Growing regenerative and healthy food at the same time facing climate change and its issues as drought and flood, greenhouse gases emission and temperature increase and minimize the use external inputs are the problems we are committed to solve. The use of a methodology called Regenerative Tropical Agriculture is the solution for crop production in tropical environment. It done by managing green manures, alley crops and weeds with no use of external or animal inputs. This agriculture captures more carbon than emits, it can be done in large scale and it is adaptable to any tropical condition.

Only organic production is not enough to fight climate change. It is necessary to practice agriculture, in large scale, which captures carbon from the atmosphere at the same time produces healthy and vitality food, which is independent of external inputs and gives economic perspective to the growers. Despite it is a global issue, solutions for tropical climate are different from subtropical climate. The solution proposed is for tropical climate but the benefits can be felt all around the globe. The pilot is located in Brazil, in the countryside of São Paulo in a city called Itápolis where there are 154 growers interested in the methodology. The solution can be adapted and replicated in all tropical lands.

The solution is to make use of a methodology suitable for tropical conditions to grow regenerative food in large scale. It consists in bringing trees to the tillage which has many benefits to the crops as:  windbreak; support the water cycle and it is source of fertility. The solution also consists in using green manure as fertilizer and in managing local weeds. More than using basically local resources it does not use animal inputs.  

The methodology suits to any horticulture and orchard production in tropical climate. Nowadays the project is landed and focused in Itápolis where there are 154 growers close to the project who are struggling in having profits due to the high cost of production and due to difficult caused by climate change. Only in Brazil there are 800.000 ha of horticulture which generates 2,4 jobs/ha and 2.4 million ha of fruiticulture which could benefit from the methodology, this without considering plantations from other tropical countries.

At first the solution is to support small-scale producers of fruits and vegetables with access to knowledge and technology to improve yields by decreasing the use of external inputs and by maximizing the synergistic relationships in the field to sustaining productivity of land. The methodology can be applied in large scale with use of light machines - which have to be adapted or developed in this moment. The focus of the solution is to capture Co2, produce healthy and nutrition food, minimize the cost of production, decrease the need of irrigation and reach a fair market. 

Trees are already used in agroforestry systems. The innovation in ART compared to agroforestry are: trees are more spaced and it is possible to mechanize the production, the ramial wood is chipped in small pieces which provides a more effective ground cover, green manure is used in synergy and weeds are managed as source of fertility. Comparing to organic systems there is no use of animal inputs and the minimum use of external resources. 

The methodology itself is the technology which needs to be more efficient and for that it is necessary the adaptation/development of new machineries for instance. The project is in a step by which these kind of demand is arising. Nowadays it is needed the development of a light machine to spread out RCW (ramial chipped wood)

Forest management is an ancestral practice which was “translated” and enhanced by the famous agricultor Ernst Gotsch. Nowadays he is known by the syntropic agriculture but ART is inspired by Ernst´ first phase. The use of RCW was also studies by Guilles Lemieux in Canadá who proved this use as very beneficial to agriculture. Green manure is widely used both in conventional and organic systems. The use of both RCW and green manure in synergy is the innovation added to the management of broadleaf weeds.

These project is located in Itapolis where the initiative is in touch with 154 growers/families. As a pilot stage, it is expected that in the first year about 20% of the growers are going to be beneficiated. In one year it is expect to serve 50% of the families which means around 75 families and in five year it is expected that 100% of the families will be served. Added to that, people from other parts will be beneficiated by courses and consulting. It is expected the methodology to be spreaded over others tropical environment.

In the first stage, as a pilot, we intend to act locally to consolidate the methodology and to be an example. This approach is very important considering the target population: the rural one. In the second stage - which means in one year - we will be impacting at least families from the region for then be impacting all organic horticulture and floriculture producers in Brazil. There is potential to the methodology to be adapted and applied in all tropical climate. The impact goes beyond the growers themself and includes all consumers in a direct way - who will benefited from consuming health food. It was can impact every human being considering that ART has a positive impact on environment.