Presentation from May 2015

1. Resilience and Agricultural
Systems in Brazil – a Pilot
Project
Centro Ecológico / SSNC
May, 2015

2. Objectives
• Develop and test a methodology to assess the
resilience of agricultural systems
• To demonstrate the potential of agricultural
systems in adapting to a context of climate
uncertainties
• To assess the potential of agricultural systems
in mitigating the effects of GHG
• To assess the potential of agricultural systems
in protecting biodiversity

3. What we have so far...
• Centro Ecológico: 15 farms with permanent plots
(samples) assessing carbon and biodiversity; a number of
dissertations and other reports; local support; etc.; and
• Centro Sabiá (Northeast): a current project related with
climate change where we will assess15 cases; many
farmers` organizations ; two influential NGOs; semi-arid
region which is very vulnerable to climate change effects

4. Site location

5. Methodology/ current studies
• Centro ecológico: 12 farms with permanent plots
assessing carbon and biodiversity; a number of
commercialization initiatives; social organizations; and
• Centro Sabiá: 15 farms with plots assessing carbon and
biodiversity; detailed questionnaire.

6. Centro ecológico

7. Centro Sabiá

12. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
Social dimension
1. How is the history of your property (how and when you
purchased / won, how it was like and what changes you
havemade​​)?
2. How was the impact of the last drought (period between
2011 and 2014)
3. Does the family participates in organizational spaces such as
trade unions, cooperatives, associations, groups, councils,
networks of articulation, etc..? Which ones?
4. In the opinions of the family such participation helps to
improve the property? Examples: joint marketing processes,
access and demands for public policies, achievement of
strategic areas,etc..

13. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
5. Does family members participate in the construction of
knowledge such as technical advice, courses, exchange
visits, field days, research, etc. activities.? What are the
benefits and advancements associatedwith these activities?
6. How is the division of labor in the property? Who is
involved? How is the participation of women in decision
making?
7. Do you hire outside labor? Is it paid or it is under
collaborativeeffort?At what time of year?
8. How do you evaluate the question of continuity / succession
on the property?
9. Does the family, community or association of which you take
part has received some recognition for the work with the
AFS?

14. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
Productive and environmental dimension
10. Which strategies the family uses for longer periods of
droughtto ensureincome, food and propertymaintenance?
11. Which are the sources of water that the family has in the
property?What is the storage capacity?
12. There are initiatives to maintain and / or restore the water
springs? Which ones?
13. Is there sufficient forage production and storage
technologies to meet the demand during the most critical
periods?
14. What are the flows of inputs and interdependencies in the
property and among the neighbors? Can you make a map of
these flows?

15. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
15. What degree of autonomy in the production of inputs?
What is produced and what is acquired outsidethe farm?
16. Does the family develops initiatives to control and
destination of garbageand sewage?
17. Does the family adopts eco-technologies for using
renewable energies (eco-stove, biodigestor, etc.) and
sanitation (bio-water,drysump, etc.)? Which ones?
18. What are the property characteristics (size, altitude, soil,
vegetation, rainfall)?
19. What are the sizeand age of your AFS?
20. How was the process of land reclamation using AFS (litter,
soil color, organic matter, indicator plants, etc..)? (may
include chromatographydata if you have)

16. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
21. Do you have legal reserve in the property? Are permanent
protection areas preserved?
22. Does the family has a habit of producing, collecting and
storing seeds and propagatingmaterialfor plantations?
23. Which plant species and varieties (fruit, grains, native,
fodder,honey, etc..) and animals exist on the property?
24. What is the AFS production (species and quantities), and the
work involved during the year? Are there any use of inputs
AFS? Which and how much?
25. Among these species which resisted better to longer periods
of drought?

17. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
Economic dimension
26. Which marketing strategies the family adopts? Fairs?
Community sales? Government programs (EAP and PNAE)?
Intermediaries?Sales to restaurants and cafeterias?What?
27. Performs exchanges as a mean of generating income for the
family?
28. Does the family adopts strategies for processing of products
such as flour production, dairy and sugar, fruit pulp, meat,
etc..?
29. Overall food produced in the property, what amount is
intended for self-consumption? It is possible to quantify the
types of foods that are intended for family consumption?

18. Questionnaire – Resilience indicators
/ Sabiá
• Indicator
• Carbon sequestration
• Number of trees
• Number of species
• Number of families
• Shannon-Weaver (H`) index
• Number of marketing strategies
• Number of organizational structures
• Capacity of water storage
• Income
• Food production
• Ecosystems Protection and the Maintenance of Biodiversity
• Rate of recovery from extreme environmental and climate change-related stresses
and shocks
• Diversity of local food system
• Innovation in agricultural biodiversity management for improved resilience and
sustainability
• Access and exchange of agricultural biodiversity
• Autonomy in relation to land and resource management
• Social infrastructure

19. Preliminary findings
• Agroforestry systems can sequester up to 60 tons/ha
of CO2eq in a period of 12 years for production
systems located in the Atlantic Forest region, while in
the semiarid region some of the systems can store up
to 40 tons/ha of CO2 eq in the biomass for the same
period;
• As expected plant diversity is considerably higher in
the agroforestry systems, when compared with
conventional production. Some of the systems have a
significant number of endemic species;

20. Preliminary findings
• Most of the farmers in both regions have different
marketing strategies for their products, suggesting a
way to guarantee economic resilience;
• It was also found that most of the families participate
in a number of organizational structures such as
producers’ cooperatives, associations, unions,
church councils, and political parties among others;

21. Preliminary findings
• In both regions most of the farmers have been
favoured by recent public policies to promote family
farming, such as the Program of Food Acquisition
(PAA – Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos) and
the National Program for School Food (PNAE –
Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar); and
• Specifically in the semiarid region farmers have
been adopting a number of strategies to store water
such as cisterns, tanks, and small dams.

22. Research questions
üHow can we infer that these agroforestry systems
are more resilient, compared with traditional land-
use systems in both regions?
üAre the agroforestry systems in the semiarid region
(Caatinga) playing a role in combating
desertification?
üWhat is the role of public policies in promoting
resilient agricultural systems;
ü How can we simplify the methodology?
üIf we find that these systems are more resilient, so
what?

23. Some preliminary analysis