No abstract

Abstract:Brazil is one of the most biodiversity rich countries in the world, including a wealth of agricultural biodiversity in both wild and cultivated forms. This is particularly noticeable in southern Brazil, home to a wide array of underutilized food species whose genetic diversity is maintained mostly by farmers through on-farm management practices. Farmers' contribution in safeguarding and keeping alive traditional knowledge (TK) essential for recognizing, cultivating, valorising and consuming these resources is critical to their conservation. Part of this diversity, a rich basket of native fruits and landraces of vegetables and grains, is also maintained through ex situ collections managed by Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and its partners. This article discusses the integrated efforts for in situ/on-farm and ex situ conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity in southern Brazil. This diversity represents an important cultural heritage, since its use, cultivation and associated knowledge result from the dynamic history of the Brazilian population, including colonisation and immigration by several different ethnicities. Many of these species are sources of genes that convey tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, as a result of the combined action of natural selection and artificial selection by farmers in agricultural systems with low inputs and diverse environmental conditions. Due to their importance for food security, use in breeding programs, high nutritional value, and potential for income generation, Embrapa has taken responsibility for the ex situ conservation of these species. The genebanks that safeguard against the loss of these resources do also play an important role in the restoration of this germplasm to farming communities. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2014, 6 742

This article examines the process of agroecological research on beekeeping systems, developed jointly by the Temperate Agriculture Program of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (EMBRAPA), and the Institute of Sociology and Peasant Studies (ISEC), of the University of Córdoba. The investigation was carried out on different beekeeping experiences in southern Brazil: peasant family farms, settlements of agrarian reform, and Afro-descent quilombola and Guarani indigenous villages. The systems are managed in the contexts of agroecological farming and include "Africanized honeybees" and native "stingless bees," integrated among trees and crops. We show that the dynamics of investigation that follows the guidelines presented by family farmers and traditional people contribute to their empowerment and to changing their own reality, favoring endogenous development and the dialogue of knowledge. The participatory experiences by ISEC and EMBRAPA Temperate Agriculture through the organization and mobilization of farmers and traditional people generated organizational structures that build local food systems. This joint initiative contributes to peasants' search for autonomy and food sovereignty, and strengthens the reproduction of this work toward the political dimension of agroecology.

The objective of this work is to identify environmental and ecosystem services provided by trees from the perception of family farmers in the Serra dos Tapes, southern Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, addressing the relevance of species for ecosystem sustainability of family farming. Environmental and ecosystem services offered by the tree flora of semi-deciduous submontane forest are presented according to the perception of farmers who use accumulated knowledge for social, cultural and economic reproduction in family farming. Four farmers were selected for their remarkable knowledge related to the agro-ecosystem and the local floristic composition, and they answered semi-structured interviews about 115 native tree species relating them to environmental and ecosystem services. The knowledge of farmers regarding the importance of forest cover for beekeeping, agroforestry system installation, source of biological materials for environmental recovery, conservation of hydric resources and for feeding mammals and birds was evidenced.

No abstract