Agrobiodiversity conservation and food sovereignty in rural settlement in the Pantanal area of Caceres, Mato Grosso

Abstract

Family farming has managed to keep, in small spaces, a diversified agricultural production aiming self-consumption, food sovereignty, income obtainment and agro biodiversity conservation. This study’s goal was to present how the agricultural production is developed in the settlement Laranjeira I, located in the Pantanal edge of Cáceres - MT, and also relate the production with the agro biodiversity conservation and the maintenance of local family sovereignty. For data collection, the qualitative approach was adopted: structured questionnaire and anthropological methods. The sample assembled 43 sites near the water springs. Quantitative approach (FR%) was used for the socioeconomic data and agricultural production analysis. Fifty-one percent of the visited sites uses agriculture mainly for their families’ self-consumption in areas such as yards and slashes. Some only grow in the yard because it is an easily accessible space next their homes since it is maintained by women and children, and to reduce losses by theft and/or weather adversities. Local people mainly grow varieties of vegetables, legumes and tubers, making it a steady and diversified production system. Only seventeen percent uses monoculture system. In thirty-two percent of the sites, traditional agricultural practices were identified, like moon orientation in cultivation and collective slashes formation, with food sharing for the families’ consumption and sale of the surplus. The presence of production by experimentation by one of the residents was found. This population has a strong cultural identity related to peasant life, and even if the commercial production conditions have not been favorable, they do not abandon the site since it is considered the product of their struggles in social movements. The land represents the story of life of its residents, ensuring the maintenance of food sovereignty of the settled families and agro biodiversity conservation.