the territory
Sierra Fluminense can be characterized as a mountainous region, with a tropical climate of high altitude (with average temperatures ranging from 18o C to 22o C) and significant presence of family farming. Rurality in this space is influenced not only by agriculture but, also, by other territorial dynamics including urban sprawl, the implementation of environmental conservation units, real estate speculation and rural-based industrial activities linked mostly to the textile sector. These processes are closely related to the connections historically established between the Sierra Fluminense and the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. During the past decades the commercial production of vegetables based in conventional technologies consolidated as the main economic activity of the vast majority of farmers. From the late 1970s onwards, some of the pioneering experiences in alternative agriculture began to emerge in different municipalities, motivating the structuring of different grassroots associations and a variety of circuits for the commercialization of organic products. Also noteworthy was the structuring, from the 2000s onwards, of a participatory guarantee system for organic production, which greatly contributed to the qualification and expansion of the commercialization of organic products. Research was conducted taking into account two distinct and interconnected territorial levels including: (i) Serra Fluminense, with its 22 municipalities and special attention to the connections established with the Metropolitan Region; (ii) the municipalities of Petrópolis, Teresópolis and Nova Friburgo selected as research sites for their relevance in the emergence of alternative paths for the development of agriculture and food supply.
Case study referee
Claudia Schmitt
Other participants
Juliano Palm, Bruno Prado, Cristiane Amâncio, Helena Lopes, Larissa Cabral, Paulo Niederle
claudia.js2@gmail.com
Territorial food system
Type of region : Urban areas
Approximate size and population
689.457 inh; 2.739,763 km²; Nova Friburgo: 204,9 inh/km²; Teresópolis: 241,1 inh/km²; Petrópolis: 384,1 inh/km²
Relatively stable in the last two decades
Type of agriculture
1-20ha Specialization in conventional horticulture
Short circuits (and anteriority)
Main social issues
Medium level of poverty, closely related to forms of access to and ownership of agricultural areas (owners, tenants…) Unemployment: around 12.5% (national average 14.7%
Significant presence of sharecroppers and tenants, land deregulation (especially Teresópolis).
Presence of agroecologial systems
Certified organic producers: Nova Friburgo 0,82%, Teresópolis 1,99%, Petrópolis 13,18%
Since the 1990s, ecologically-based production has been closely linked to organic agriculture, being mostly certified by one of the associations that assumed an important role in this regard from this period on.
Specific agri-food system dynamics and initiatives (and anteriority)
Agrifood transition
Main stakes for the transition : Contamination by pesticides / Property area restrictions
Key obstacles to AE transition
Territorial containment, especially difficulty in structuring containment barriers to conventional production and guaranteeing water resources for irrigation without risk of contamination. Material and symbolic consistency of socio-technical networks around specialized agriculture around the production of vegetables in a conventional system.
Leading actors in the transition
Farmers, with many “neo-rurals”; Associação dos agricultores biológicos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; Associação agroecológica de Teresópolis
Institutionalisation of the agrifood transition
Especially at the national level, locally with an emphasis on policies aimed at organic agriculture. At the state level, the program Rio Rural and the recent institutionalization of the state policy on organic production and agroecology deserves to be highlighted.
Key initiatives
Initiative 1
Group dynamics to carry out participatory certification in organic agriculture.
Initiative 2
Organization of direct marketing fairs and groups of farmers to participate in them.
Our approach
The case study of the Serra Fluminense Region is related to the development of a doctoral research that culminated in the elaboration of the thesis entitled “Agroecological transition processes: ecology of projects – a pragmatic, systemic and territorial approach at Sierra Fluminense Region” (PALM, 2021). This work enabled interactions with researchers from different areas who have been working in the region for many years as well as with social actors involved in the construction of initiatives related to agroecology and organic production in this territory. Research was carried out seeking to build a territorial, systemic and pragmatic approach to the socio-ecological transformations that occurred in the territorial agri-food system, from the 1970s onwards, constructing a longitudinal reading, not only of the configuration that became dominant in this agri-food system (commercial vegetable production supplying large urban centers) but, also, of the socio-productive initiatives that sought, at different moments in time, to contest the existent forms of organization of agriculture and food supply. Special attention was devoted to the emergence and intertwining of a heterogeneous set of initiatives of environmentalization of agriculture and food supply that unfolded, overtime, in this territory. This shared and decentralized space of interactions and production of practices and knowledge was referred to in this study as an “ecology of projects”. The investigation sought to understand how these different dynamics of environmentalization of agriculture unfold in time and space, in an effort to expand their margins of maneuver in these territorially situated processes of agroecological transition.
Trajectory
Method
The investigation used documentary research and statistical data analysis to provide a multidimensional and territorial reading of socio-ecological transformations affecting the agri-food system at Sierra Fluminense Region in the past few decades. A digital collection of maps was also built with the aim of analyzing, from a relational perspective, the dynamics of spatialization of conventional agricultural systems and ecologically based agricultural production. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation were conducted in interaction with farmers and members of organizations involved in agroecology and organic production networks particularly in the municipalities of Petrópolis, Teresópolis e Nova Friburgo. Management plans elaborated by farmers certified by the Association of Biological Farmers of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Associação de Agricultores Biológicos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) were also analyzed. An important moment in the dialogue established with social actors in the territory was the organization of an interdisciplinary seminar involving actors and researchers exchanging views and experiences related to Agroecological Transitions in the Sierra Fluminense.The results achieved so far have been shared with the actors involved in the research in seminars and meetings.
Detailed timeline
Three main political and institutional moments and streams of change can be identified in the trajectory of the agri-food system in Sierra Fluminense.
Between the 1960’s and the 1970’s the region was impacted by policies aiming to articulate industrialization, urbanization and the technological modernization of agriculture. Horticultural production was stimulated through different public policies and new market outlets were implemented around the operational units of a public company called Supply Centers of the State of Rio de Janeiro (CEASA). The expansion of the urban population in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro contributed to the displacement of horticultural production to the Sierra Fluminense.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s the private sector expanded its influence in the production, distribution and consumption networks of vegetable crops operating in the region, affecting the composition of demand and imposing quality conventions. This period was also characterized by the densification across the region of a capillary network of private agents involved in the commercialization of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, among other inputs.
The time frame covering from the middle of the 1990’s to the present encompasses a period of construction, implementation and, more recently, weakening/destructuring of federal public policies for the strengthening of family farming. Since their creation, family farm policies enhanced the modernization of agriculture in Sierra Fluminense, mainly due to credit programs. From the beginning of the years 2000 on, the room for maneuver for actors engaged in processes of environmentalization of agriculture was expanded as organic production and agroecology began to be recognized, at least at some level, by social organizations and public institutions, as a potential way to enable the social and economic reproduction of family agricultures. The second half of the 2010s and the beginning of the 2020s were marked by multiple crises, including severe economic pressures, the Covid-19 pandemic, dramatic episodes of rain with floods and landslides (in 2022), and the deconstruction of different public policy instruments at the federal level, including food procurement programs targeting family farmers and the National Policy on Agroecology and Organic Production.
