A concepção de fertilidade do agroecossistema: implicações teóricas e metodológicas da construção sócio-histórica de um conceito

Abstract

The concept of fertility in agroecosystem: social and methodological implications of the socio-historical concept construction This project establishes a historical analysis of the soil fertility concept in agro-ecosystems, noticing how its constitution is related to historical transformations of society, considering the economic logic which presides the industrial agriculture. We highlight the origins of the formation of the current concept of fertility and to what extent, and how, this concept was influenced by the economy and modern science development. We also emphasize how the ways of production which arise in opposition to industrial agriculture face the issue of fertility, which alternatives to fertility management for more sustainable production systems they present, and which epistemological and methodological basis they have. Fertility is here understood as the "top of the iceberg" of deep and complex relations between economic and agronomic development in the scope of science that contribute to the worsening of the recent environment and civilization crisis by the validation of a set of technologies that are no more than the instrumental basis of rural social excluding development model which concentrates wealth. The analysis of the referred complexes interrelations demands a critic theoretical perspective in order to overcome the disciplinary boundaries and to enrich knowledge with the findings of the specialized science fields with an interdisciplinary perspective. Finally, the present project aims to highlight the fertility as a relevant aspect of the industrial agriculture crisis through a dialog between technical agronomic theory and social literature. This interdisciplinary dialog aims to promote a breadth and historical based analysis about this subject.