[interview: Antônio Barbosa] native seeds resist Brazil’s dismantlement
selected and planted by families in the Semi-arid region, seeds ensured food and sustenance after the historic drought and during the worst period of the Covid-19 pandemic
Today's issue opens a section in this newsletter: monthly interviews. I liked the format when I published the conversation with Lourence Alves, in August, and within the strategy of increasing low heat's publication frequency, I will start publishing in Portuguese an interview on the 15th of each month and an essay along the lines of what you have been reading on the 30th or 31st.
And there's more news: from now on, designer Marina Kinas will collaborate with one illustration per edition. Isn't that amazing? I've always been a fan of Marina's work and we met when we were still in our teens, before taking the entrance exam. Thanks for wanting to be here, Nina!
By the way, I have to publicly thank Luciane Maesp, who started translating the issues in September (this and this one) after reading the interview I did with Lourence. The amazing notes that contextualize and explain terms, cultural peculiarities, and State programs are also hers. Thank you so much, Luciane!
Little by little, under low heat, a team is cooked up (!). Subscribe to follow the nexts posts:
this issue was translated by Luciane Maesp 📧 luciane.maesp@gmail.com
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NATIVE SEEDS RESIST BRAZIL’S DISMANTLEMENT
selected and planted by families in the Semi-arid1 region, seeds ensured food and sustenance after the historic drought and during the worst period of the Covid-19 pandemic
At the end of September I participated in the Bori Press Agency's Exploring Food Agendas event, and there I met Adriana Amância, press officer of Brazilian Semi-arid Articulation (ASA)2. In one of her speeches, Adriana mentioned an impressive fact: 70% of families in the Brazilian Semi-arid that stock and plant native seeds maintained the normal volume of food production even during the most critical period of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is one of the results of a survey carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO–UN) and ASA between July and December 2020 with a representative sample of the 200 thousand families served by the One Land and Two Waters program (the P1+2) from ASA. The program adds a cistern for the use of water for food production to families who have a cistern to store water for use in hygiene and cleaning at home, built by the Brazilian government's 1 Million Cisterns Program.
That's why I wanted to talk to Antônio Gomes Barbosa, sociologist, master in agroecology, coordinator of Dryland Adaptation Knowledge Initiative – Living Semi-arid project (DAKI – Semiárido Vivo). He coordinated the One Land and Two Waters Program (P1+2) and the Semi-arid Seeds Program, both from ASA.
Foram entrevistados moradores do semiárido em nove estados brasileiros: Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia e Minas Gerais.
There were interviewed residents of the Semi-arid region of nine Brazilian states: Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia and Minas Gerais. The region suffered from the worst drought on record between 2012 and 2018 – in some places, the drought began in 2010; in others, it lasted until 2019 – and then had to deal with a pandemic of the new coronavirus.
The research aimed to measure the impact that social isolation and trade closure had on this population's lives. Most respondents are women, between 40 and 50 years old, living with more than three people, and cistern owners – for use at home and cultivation. They plant mainly cereals, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, tubers, but also flowers and other commercial crops. There is also the creation of animals in small herds, for subsistence.
The P1+2 is an ASA program that started in 2007 intending to guarantee access to water for planting and livestock raising to families that are already served with access to drinking water. "The research shows that the program of access to water for drinking and production makes families change their condition: they stop being families that need to be assisted by income distribution programs to become families that produce food and generate wealth for the region", says Barbosa.
The main obstacles that these families face are not the Semi-arid climate, but the lack of State investment in cisterns and other strategies that allow them to store water; the discontinuation of credit lines that were contracted by families to invest in the property, and its production improvement; and the monoculture of transgenics in the region, which ends up contaminating native’s seedbeds and gardens with the propagation of their pollen.
"It is necessary to resume the journey of what we call an action of coexistence with the Semi-arid region", summarized Barbosa in his last answer. He responded in audio to a series of questions I sent him via WhatsApp. The interview below is organized and edited for better understanding.
When we talk about native seeds in the semiarid region, can we exemplify the main species and explain how this work of selection, storage, and exchange of seeds is carried out?
There are many species. Beans are one of the species and this species has varieties. The same for watermelon. In the Semi-arid region, there are more varieties of beans and corn, but also broad beans, tubers, and a set of other genetic materials that families keep to plant again. We surveyed families from the Brazilian Semi-arid Seeds Program, and most of the seeds they keep are from the family itself over the years. Then, come the materials traded through the community from other families.
When we talk about native seeds we are not just talking about genetics, we are talking moreover about them being plants adapted to the climate, and also about the knowledge bundled to that material that families keep: where is the best place to plant, whether it should be planted together, what is the correct timing to plant, what should not be done.
Families in the Semi-arid plant only when there is rain, and then sort the seeds between the grains that are food, and the ones that will be stored as seed. It is a tradition of many farming families throughout Brazil. Farmers in the Semi-arid region were in a process of losing their seeds, there was genetic erosion. And even so, they set up their strategies: instead of planting in the swidden, they plant in the backyard to produce seeds. To our pleasant surprise, the research shows that whoever kept the seeds had more autonomy. At a time when everything was closed, and even accessing seeds [from other places, such as companies and cooperatives] was harder.
Those who live in the Semi-arid region leave it when it is not the rainy season. They go to the North, Southeast, South, and if someone glimpses an unknown seed, he brings it back with him. This makes the Semi-arid possibly the most biodiverse area in the country's seed field. Farmers plant these new seeds in small quantities and keep testing and developing knowledge. The exchange also happens a lot: if one finds a bean, he plants and gives seed to another family. There are also non-vegetable native seeds, such as caprines – 93% of the goat herd is in the Northeast, and most of the herds in the Northeast are in the Semi-arid region.
We are talking about 1.1 million families whose basis is in saving, protecting and exchanging, testing, and adapting native seeds. It is a job that also ends up being an environmental service. Corn on its own [has a cultivation history of] some six thousand years being selected. The mass selection [made from the phenotype, that is, from the visible characteristics of the plant or animal], in which they manually select – "oops, this grain is better than this other one, so I'll separate it" – is a manual work of care and of associated knowledge that is something astonishing and enchanting.
Adriana had mentioned that native corn seeds in the Semi-arid region are at risk of being contaminated by transgenics. What are the states and regions in which these plantations are threatened and what measures can society take to support the small producer?
Today, the main threat is the contamination of these seeds by transgenics, especially corn. At ASA, we carried out contamination tests and the numbers increased over time. We are currently with ASA and Embrapa3 together in the program called Agrobiodiversity of the Semi-arid [launched in 2019 with 53 municipalities in the states of Sergipe, Bahia, Paraíba, Pernambuco, and Piauí], which works in seven territories. No state in the Semi-arid region does not have contamination, which occurs in a variety of ways, as yet distributed by seed houses.
There is a lot of transgenic material and corn pollen is the one with the easiest propagation. In all places and regions, some materias are 60 to 100 years old in the family now being contaminated. There is no policy in Brazil to protect farmers and their materials. There is no policy to punish companies that contaminate since today it is possible to know which company produced that transgenic. Nowadays, Brazil's policy is to expand transgenics with all in.
The State promotes a seed distribution policy and not an incentive to seed production, storage, and enhancement of local genetic material.
We have been working with protection policies for this material so that farmers can harvest, test for transgenics and not plant those seeds next year. Then plant part of it and test it again: if it is contaminated, save the first batch of material and replace it.
The main crop in the Semi-arid region is corn, which represents a whole logic of divinity and celebration4, and this material is largely contaminated. We are building alternatives with Embrapa as perspectives on how to protect this material, discussing with the seed houses, and building backup copies of this genetic material.
The research showed that producers with sufficient access to inputs, extension, credit, and post-harvest services maintained normal income during the pandemic period. How is this offered in the region? In the case of credit, most are from state banks, but what about the infrastructure of inputs and post-harvest services?
The research shows that families that have more land and more access to available resources and materials, technical assistance, and credit produce much more, and confirms that the right path is to provide families with drinking water, water for production, build strategies of banks and community houses of native seeds and build strategies for short commercialization circuits, such as agroecological fairs, exchange spaces, commercial spaces, such as grocery stores.
But what we have most of the time is non-access.
Credit, especially Pronaf5, has almost disappeared. Before, there were specific Pronaf lines for the Semi-arid, for agroecology, for youth, and women. But these policies are being weakened and farmers have a hard time getting them because the government no longer differentiates by property size.
One of the ways to obtain credit is through technical assistance [among the criteria for applying for credit there is participation in rural educational programs, for example], both by the state and by organizations that do this monitoring free of charge. If you dismantle this structure [that is, it reduces the availability of technical training in the region and the presence of researchers and professionals who can help the farmer to work his land better], you harm the farmer, who cannot build other incomes. The research reflects the issue of the pandemic: people have no credit, have come out of a great drought, will finally have water, have part of their seeds saved and now that they could start planting again, they cannot sell.
It’s very difficult to measure because there are several disarticulations. The water policy itself is being dismantled: it stopped at the beginning of the Temer government [in the 2017 budget, the government cut down by 92% the budget for cisterns implementation in the Semi-arid region] and the Bolsonaro government is trying to boycott any water policy in the Semi-arid [in 2020, the 1 Million Cisterns Program had the worst performance since its creation in 2003].
If you provide technical assistance services, make credit and land available to these families, they do not need to be beneficiaries of income distribution programs. With access to water for drinking and production, families leave the need for assistance to become families that produce food and generate wealth for the region. This study that represents 200,000 families in the Semi-arid region proves that during a pandemic situation, those who had water for production generated income.
Looking at the results of this research and at the reality in Brazil today, in which family farming is increasingly unsupported, for how long is it possible that these communities remain resilient with these practices?
We went through the biggest drought in history that we have known since the arrival of the Portuguese, and even with the lack of water, there was no rural exodus, no looting, no malnourished children. And this was because these families had water to drink, they didn’t need to leave their homes. This water can now be collected from rain, if there is no rain, it is distributed via a water tank truck. There will never be a permanent river or stream in the Semi-arid region, however, there can always be water, if strategies are built to expand storage so that water doesn’t evaporate – especially cisterns and plans to create integrated systems for quality water access. If this policy moves forward, life in the Semi-arid will change.
Even though the research data shows that part of the interviewees expanded their production and that they are now living in a food security situation, these people had great difficulties. The State was not there to perform its duty. Townspeople were building their strategies, such as selling via WhatsApp and Facebook, for example. It was the creative power of these families that brought them out of isolation. The research could not measure these elements because of time.
It is necessary to expand and allow access to the Food Acquisition Program6, allow them to market their products, and benefit them to add value. We are talking about people who generate the food consumed in that region, who provide food security and identity. It is necessary to resume the journey of what we call the action of coexistence in the Semi-arid region.
Without thinking about the bleak scenario in Brazil today, what State actions do you think the results of this study could inspire?
Brazil is in a state of dismantling. This Semi-arid region had few public policies, apart from the 1 Million Cisterns Program. Today there are 1.2 million cisterns. And ASA has a second water action. There are 200 thousand families in the Semi-arid that are privileged compared to others because they have second water to use in production. If these families don't need state assistance, what's their problem? They don't always need access to credit, but they do need to sell their products.
The dismantling of the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE)7 has a significant impact on the lives of these families. Imagine for other families that do not have access to water for production? Some families also need access to land, because if they build a cistern on their land, they have no space to plant.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
I can’t help thinking that if a region forgotten by the State such as the Brazilian Semi-arid thrives on using traditional knowledge, can you imagine the power that this food system based on native seeds would have in a region that is hydraulically favored and with government policies backing it up?
NT: The Brazilian Semi-arid is a region that includes the north of Minas Gerais state and all of the 9 states of the northeast region (Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe), occupying 12% of the Brazilian territory. Due to the inconstancy of the rain, the Semi-arid is characterized by frail hydrography where the long drought periods make the rivers temporary. The São Francisco River, which crosses the center of this region is the only permanent river permanent (until now), making it especially important for subsistence and the Semi-arid culture. Its predominant biome is the exclusively Brazilian Caatinga, with roots-exposed and often thorny low stature trees, bushes, and grassy species – that present us some preciosities such as cumaru (or fava tonka, a seed with vanilla-ish flavor), the beautiful mandacaru cactus, and caju (aka cashew, perfumed and meaty fruit that also provide the cashew nuts).
NT: A network that connects more than three thousand civil society organizations in favor of defending the local communities' rights, by promoting actions and strengthening associativism and social mobilization.
NT: Embrapa is the acronym of Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, a public company founded in 1973, focused on technical-scientific technology development for agriculture and livestock. It has dozens of decentralized units throughout the country for research and technical support on local farming and cattle raising matters.
NT: Cultivated by native peoples in Brazil since before the Portuguese arrival, corn has a great role in guaranteeing food security for the Northeast region. Historically, after the rain, the corn crop ends around June, when Festa Junina takes place to celebrate the harvest. It is a religious syncretism party with its traditions, such as forró music, bonfires, colorful paper flags, and stalls selling corn, peanuts, and coconut-based recipes, like canjica, pé-de-moleque, cocada, and pamonha.
NT: Pronaf means National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture, a federal program that aims to generate income and better use of family labor in rural areas by offering financial funding for investments and improvements in processing, mechanization, etc.
NT: As known as PAA, this is an important public policy started in 2003 with many fronts of action that strengthen familiar agriculture and enhance food security. As an example, the food brought from these familiar farmers by the state goes to public institutions such as hospitals, schools, nurseries, prisons, military quarters, etc; to build regulatory food stocks, or directly to vulnerable people. It is a win-win policy that has been undermined and misused since 2018.
NT: It’s a public policy where the federal government distributes the budget for all levels of public educational institutions to partially fund the food cost of the meals offered in-class time. 30% of this budget must be used to purchase products from family farming. Then, PNAE and PAA are food security programs that complement one another.