Sustainable agriculture in warm semiarid lands

The objective of this essay was to carry out a synthesis of sustainable agriculture in the state of Ceara, Semiarid Region of Brazil, from the perspective of agroecology. It is the result of a collaborative effort between rural development organizations and teaching and research institutions and is based on the results of debates and research, teaching materials and the bibliography. Due to climate severity and uncertain socioeconomic and political conditions, agriculture in the semiarid region of Brazil is characterized by the low use of financial resources, rainfed agriculture and extensive livestock farming. About 70% of the producers are family farmers, who grow corn and beans in small areas, without technical assistance, most of them practicing subsistence agriculture. Extensive livestock farming is based on grazing native vegetation and there are often degraded pastures. The following analysis suggests that sustainable agriculture in Ceara goes through a process of building agroecological knowledge and awareness, based on practices and debates on how to coexist with the semiarid condition. The use of adapted plant and animal species, soil and water conservation, the local preservation and increase of agrobiodiversity and integration between agricultural, processing and commercialization activities have been pointed out as strategies to improve agriculture sustainability in the region. Thus, apparently, there is a shift towards a socio-environmental rationality for sustainability, as opposed to the notion of fighting drought. These changes in basis take place amid contradictory proposals from the federal and state governments which are allied with and benefit agribusiness with large volumes of public investment, on the one hand, and allocate modest resources to sustainable agriculture on the other.