Suchergebnisse

Throughout Brazil, landless families are being resettled under the government's National Land Reform Program. The corresponding resettlements, the so-called 'assentamentos', constitute for Brazil a new type of small-scale agriculture, the successful development of which promises to be long and challenging. The new settlers encounter a range of technical difficulties related to their limited, heterogeneous knowledge and experience about agricultural production, and to their restricted access to financial resources and institutional support. This paper looks at some of the key characteristics of the farming systems of three assentamentos in the district of Unaí in the Cerrados region, and assesses whether and how conservation agriculture could constitute a viable basis for improving existing crop management practices and for increasing their sustainability and overall contribution to improved household livelihoods. The key problems identified were in order of importance: 1) restricted access to tillage equipment for seedbed preparation; 2) late planting 3) poor weed control; and 4).low soil fertility and restricted access to fertilizers. An approach to participatory development of CA cropping systems is outlined, as well as the first steps taken to test potentially useful CA technologies and to identify and formalize CA focus groups. A major strategy is to articulate research activities conducted with individual farmers to design and adapt CA systems to their specific conditions, and activities conducted with farmers' organizations at the community and regional (participatory evaluation, activity planning, organization of market relationships for inputs and outputs, etc.).

Correspondance: ; National audience ; This paper recalls the principal stages of a French-Brazilian research program on the management of farmers' production risks due to water stress in the Brazilian Cerrados. The objective was to make recommendations to lower the production risks, in terms of both agricultural management practices and insurance policies. An agro-climatic classification at a regional scale allowed for the creation of more efficient credit systems and agricultural insurance coverage, which were mostly beneficial to the large agro-industrial farmers of the region. Subsequently, the case of the smallholder farms was studied by using cropping systems and farm models. The application of these models showed that the risks with which small-scale farmers are confronted are very variable according to the environmental conditions and that they are a limiting factor for a possible intensification of the production. These models, which take into account the constraints specific to the various types of small-scale farms, might be used as a tool for improving existing agricultural insurance systems, particularly in order to better integrate the constraints specific to small-scale farms ; Cet article retrace les principales étapes d'une recherche franco-brésilienne portant sur la caractérisation des risques de stress hydrique dans les Cerrados brésiliens, avec l'objectif de faire des recommandations pour les réduire, à la fois en termes de pratiques culturales et en termes de politique d'assurance agricole. Un zonage agroclimatique à l'échelle régionale a permis d'améliorer le système de crédit de campagne et d'assurance agricole dont bénéficient les grandes exploitations agro-industrielles de la région. Le cas des exploitations familiales a été ensuite étudié en ayant recours à la modélisation des systèmes de culture et des exploitations. L'emploi de ces modèles a montré que les risques auxquels les exploitants sont confrontés sont très variables selon les milieux et peuvent ...

Cet article retrace les principales étapes d'une recherche franco-brésilienne portant sur la caractérisation des risques de stress hydrique dans les Cerrados brésiliens, avec l'objectif de faire des recommandations pour les réduire, à la fois en termes de pratiques culturales et en termes de politique d'assurance agricole. Un zonage agroclimatique à l'échelle régionale a permis d'améliorer le système de crédit de campagne et d'assurance agricole dont bénéficient les grandes exploitations agro-industrielles de la région. Le cas des exploitations familiales a été ensuite étudié en ayant recours à la modélisation des systèmes de culture et des exploitations. L'emploi de ces modèles a montré que les risques auxquels les exploitants sont confrontés sont très variables selon les milieux et peuvent limiter les possibilités d'intensification. Ces modèles pourraient être utilisés pour améliorer le système d'assurance existant et en particulier pour mieux tenir compte des contraintes propres aux divers types d'exploitations familiales.

Correspondance: ; National audience ; This paper recalls the principal stages of a French-Brazilian research program on the management of farmers' production risks due to water stress in the Brazilian Cerrados. The objective was to make recommendations to lower the production risks, in terms of both agricultural management practices and insurance policies. An agro-climatic classification at a regional scale allowed for the creation of more efficient credit systems and agricultural insurance coverage, which were mostly beneficial to the large agro-industrial farmers of the region. Subsequently, the case of the smallholder farms was studied by using cropping systems and farm models. The application of these models showed that the risks with which small-scale farmers are confronted are very variable according to the environmental conditions and that they are a limiting factor for a possible intensification of the production. These models, which take into account the constraints specific to the various types of small-scale farms, might be used as a tool for improving existing agricultural insurance systems, particularly in order to better integrate the constraints specific to small-scale farms ; Cet article retrace les principales étapes d'une recherche franco-brésilienne portant sur la caractérisation des risques de stress hydrique dans les Cerrados brésiliens, avec l'objectif de faire des recommandations pour les réduire, à la fois en termes de pratiques culturales et en termes de politique d'assurance agricole. Un zonage agroclimatique à l'échelle régionale a permis d'améliorer le système de crédit de campagne et d'assurance agricole dont bénéficient les grandes exploitations agro-industrielles de la région. Le cas des exploitations familiales a été ensuite étudié en ayant recours à la modélisation des systèmes de culture et des exploitations. L'emploi de ces modèles a montré que les risques auxquels les exploitants sont confrontés sont très variables selon les milieux et peuvent limiter les possibilités d'intensification. Ces modèles pourraient être utilisés pour améliorer le système d'assurance existant et en particulier pour mieux tenir compte des contraintes propres aux divers types d'exploitations familiales.

Involving users in the development of innovations has become not only legitimate, but necessary, especially when users face strong constraints. The Unai project in the Brazilian Cerrados is using such an approach for accompanying small holders of the Agrarian Reform sector in their struggle towards sustainable agriculture. Several stakeholders are involved, including research, education, local development institutions and farmers. Direct-seeding systems (DSS), improved livestock feeding and milk marketing, and also capacity-building of farmers and their organizations are among the key innovations being tackled. The paper highlights results obtained with focus groups in developing milk marketing and directseeding, in their technical, organizational and training / learning dimensions. The Unai project also facilitated the emergence of a new cooperative extension service comprised of young farm advisers originating from the Agrarian reform sector households. Work is also under way to help farmers and their organizations play a more active role in the emergence of sound agricultural policy instruments at the level of the whole Unai region. More generally, the Unai project strives to give a concrete meaning to key concepts such as responsabilizing farmers, formalizing the relationships among stakeholders, negociating rules for collective action, adjusting dynamically the roles and functions of the various partners, and favoring mutual learning. In doing so, it aims to enable all stakeholders, and especially the weaker ones, to gradually become true co-designers of innovations. Installing effective mediation and catalyzer functions, developing effective strategies for coping with conflicts, risk and unexpected occurences, reasoning the dynamics of interventions over time and at multiple scales, and finally creating adequate space for mutual learnings are part of the continuing challenges the Unai project faces. This experience illustrates the interest and challenges of approaches aimed at rejuvenating the thinking and the practice of how research may accompany innovation processes. Implementing the corresponding changes require time and continuity of efforts. It also requires active, imaginative support by the institutions hosting the corresponding work, with the eventual aim of achieving an effective integration of scientific and institutional approaches on one hand, and of agronomic, ecological and social sciences on the other hand.