SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Concept and forms

    Concept:
    Sustainable agriculture is the result of alternative methods that use organic agriculture, the biodynamics, the biological control and the natural one, aiming at the development of an agriculture with the lesser possible damage to the environment and to human health.

    Forms:
    According to he Health World Organization about 20.000 people dies per year and millions are poisoned directly or indirectly by the effect of the agrotoxics (Barbara Dinham, Getting off the pesticide treadmill, Our Planet, PNUMA, Vol.8, nº4, 1996).
    Moreover, the proper land becomes useless because of the contamination for using agrotoxics repeatedly, being this one of the factors of reduction of its capacity, beyond the one that the pesticides compromise the health of human being, contaminate water, attack ecosystems and leave the plagues most resistant. This allies the erosion, the salinization, and the desertification and to the exhaustion of the nutrient products, had become the biggest problems of agriculture.
    These prove had shown the necessity of modifying agriculture form, appearing emergent environment or agroenvironmental agriculture. Inside of this new panorama Biotechnology has basic paper, developing insecticide biological, moreover molecular biology obtains to generate more resistant cultures less the plagues and dependents of the agrotoxics.

   Organic agriculture:
    It has been developing a lot with the use of the biological insecticide, natural seasonings and animal dung to still fertilize fields, opting the agriculturist to the rotating form of harvests for " not tiring the ground ". It is also known that some multinationals are already producing enzymes that magnify the dissolution of the mineral match contained in the rations for animals, thus diminishing the contamination of the ground and of the water when its dejection are used as organic seasoning.

   Direct plantation:
    Another alternative form of agriculture inside of the new agroenvironmental is the direct plantation that consists of planting without removing the ground for plough or grid, not allowing the erosion and consequently keeping the nutrients in the land, also the originated ones from the remaining portions of previous cultures.
    In this type of plantation it does not have previous housekeeping of the ground.
    The main objective of this form of plantation is the conservation of the ground, as it diminishes the erosion of ground.
    The direct plantation is very adjusted a technology the small producing average and to familiar agriculture.
    As it is known the direct plantation in the straw was already practiced in 6 million ha in 1997 (Combed Fernando Cardoso. Direct plantation in the straw and social interest periodical the State of São Paulo, 6,10,97), what shows its acceptance and importance.