Module 5 - Brazil: Participatory Microcatchment Strategy for Increased Productivity and Natural Resource Conservation

Prior to the 1980s in Brazil, agricultural production increases were primarily the result of expansion in areas under cultivation. After 1986, the agricultural sector rebounded with intensified production so that by 1996, agriculture accounted for about 10 percent of GDP. This period left a legacy of deforestation and increased soil erosion, and questions about sustainability, specifically of soil productivity and water quality. In the state of São Paulo, 62 percent of total land areas is considered cultivable, although most soils are of moderate or marginal quality and declining productivity.

Project Objectives and Description

In 1986 the Government of São Paulo commissioned a study on the risks of erosion in the Peixe-Paranapanema River watershed. The findings emphasized the seriousness of sheet and gully erosion. The purposes of the Land Management Project were to increase agricultural production and farm incomes while ensuring the conservation of natural resources. Major components included:

• Technology and institutional development to increase awareness of natural resource management issues and facilitate participatory management of land resources.
  
  
• Adaptive agricultural research to provide technical solutions for soil conservation, integrated pest management, disposal of residual inputs, and crop diversification.
  
  
• An incentive program for sustainable NRM and conservation through community awareness building, the provision of grants for demonstration plots, and greater enforcement of land legislation.
  
  
• Training of extension agents and beneficiaries.

All of these interventions at the microwatershed level take advantage of geographical units of a more manageable size, linked by hydrological processes; stronger social cohesion within microwatersheds; ease of monitoring and measuring results; and ease of scaling microwatershed management projects to other areas, such as downstream communities.

The Technology and Institutional Development component finances rural extension, rural organization, and agroecological mapping at the microcatchment level. To change the crop-focused orientation of the extension system and farmers toward a microcatchment orientation, the project provides operational and technical guidelines and intensive training to all extension staff, including municipal and private extension workers.