The indigenous peoples of the Amazon from the past centuries have left great legacies to the present day: cuisine, customs, language, art, among many others. But they left a physical legacy that promises to be a solution for increasing agricultural productivity and recovering soils.
This legacy is the so-called Archaeological Black Earth, Indian Black Earth, or Anthropogenic Dark Earth, which has been the subject of scientific study for some time. It is a type of soil found in various parts of the Amazon: its characteristics, besides the darker color, are: high fertility, which does not deplete over time; high chemical resilience, including resilience to climate conditions; and the ability to retain carbon, delaying its entry into the atmosphere.
Black Earth was formed due to human activity in various parts of the region over thousands of years, especially near rivers. Because it contains traces of past civilizations, the areas where it is found are archaeological sites protected by the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (Iphan) [National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute]. These areas cannot be exploited except for research purposes.
The news is that researchers from the Emílio Goeldi Museum of Pará have managed to reproduce the same advantageous characteristics of the Archaeological Black Earth (ABE), replicating the conditions that gave rise to the ancient black soil. The result is a material that can be used as a biofertilizer to boost agricultural productivity and recover degraded land. Moreover, this is a carbon-neutral technology, because instead of generating greenhouse gases, it retains them in the soil and allows proper waste disposal that could otherwise pollute nature.
The product has been named ancestral technosol and its development is being captained by Milena Moraes, a chemist at Goeldi Museum. “We call it technosol because it's something created, a made-up soil, it's not a natural soil. And ancestral because we took into account this ancestral knowledge, the ancestry of having come from the Archaeological Black Earth,” explains the researcher.
Indian Black Earth
The ABE is also called Terra Preta de Índio [Indian Black Earth] because its origin is related to pre-Columbian ancestral peoples' occupation, ranging in age from 800 to 13,000 years. It bears records of this presence, including the remains of ceramics and stone tools, organic waste such as blood, bones and even feces, as well as traces of fire use in its carbonization. The material has high levels of organic carbon, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and manganese, in contrast to natural soils. There is still no consensus among experts as to whether its creation was intentional or whether it is just a consequence of the human activities carried out there.
This type of soil is present in discontinuous spots throughout the Amazon region, including Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The patches where they occur vary in size from one to up to 500 hectares (the equivalent of 500 soccer fields), but most reach only five hectares.
Economic and environmental advantages
With so many benefits, including the endurance of its characteristics over time, Archaeological Black Earth would be an excellent input for today's agriculture. However, let alone being protected as a national heritage, access to this input is limited. “Even if it were possible to sell it, it's only found in patches. So it wouldn't be commercially viable,” clarifies Milena Moraes.
And with the attempt to reproduce Black Earth’s characteristics comes the idea of the ancestral technosol. “Technosol is a mixture of waste from the meat industry, which involves fat, blood, and bones; waste from the wood industry, and also partially carbonized material. It's an attempt to recreate the same characteristics of the Archaeological Black Earth,” details the chemist.
The product has potential benefits for agriculture. “There are direct technical advantages: each crop needs a fertilizer, a specific input, and technosol can cater for all crops. So, when we look at the farmer, especially the family farmer, we can deliver a unique solution that is easy to apply, keeps that area productive and guarantees sustainability,” clarifies Milena.
“As for the economic aspect, when farmers introduce clean technology into the soil, they are able to attract investments that we call green finance. It's a great advantage to employ zero-carbon technology, which traps greenhouse gases. So, on top of everything else, it's environmentally healthier and has a positive impact, because the producer won't be using any chemical products harmful to the environment,” the researcher points out.
The expert also recalls the use of technosol may reduce dependence on imported fertilizers. “Brazil relies on 85% of fertilizers from abroad and was very affected when the conflict between Ukraine and Russia began, a country from which Brazil imports. Having a national technology, we wouldn't be dependent on that nor on the variation in the international exchange rate,” evaluates Milena Moraes.
Building bridges
Ancestral technosol's development prompted the creation of a startup called Iasauatec Amazon. “In Guarani, iasaua means bridge. The idea is to turn it into a bridge between the past and the future, a bridge that intertwines science, ancestral knowledge, and the market,” argues Milena, the initiative's CEO.
This is the first startup to be incubated within the Goeldi Museum, although it is not formally part of the institution. Amílcar Mendes, coordinator of the Museum's Center for Knowledge Protection, Innovation and Technology Transfer, points out that it would be the first deep tech in the region.
“Iasauatec Amazon is a deep tech, in other words, it's a startup that develops products based on scientific and technological knowledge. This type of technology depends on a lot of resources to be developed. At the very least, we estimate that the Museum would have to devote approximately R$2.5 million to its development, and we don't have these resources. But it's not fair that this promising technology remains restricted due to a lack of investment. That's why we came up with the startup, to make it possible to seek out these resources,” indicates the coordinator.
At the moment, the technosol is still undergoing tests so that it can actually reach growers. “Our technology has a TRL [technological maturity level] of 5, on a scale that goes from 1 to 9. We're going through that process where we need very robust resources for the laboratory and qualified personnel to be able to overcome this step and guarantee that it will work very well. We have already achieved very good results in restructuring the soil after a year's use. But we want to speed up this process to deliver a faster solution to the producer,” Milena advocates.
Innovation
The ancestral technosol has had a patent application registered with the Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Intelectual (INPI) [National Institute of Intellectual Property] since 2020. The process of obtaining a patent takes an average of eight years. “They do all the research to check if anyone else is doing the same thing, which is why it takes so long. But we've already done a search and we can say that, today, only the Museum is trying to recreate a solution based on the Archaeological Black Earth,” says the researcher.
Milena Moraes refers to the work carried out with Amílcar Mendes, in which they searched various national and international patent databases and found no records of anything like this being developed.
“When we pronounce the word Museum, one thinks of the past, collections, and exhibitions. But we also do a lot of innovation. The Núcleo de Proteção ao Conhecimento, Inovação e Transferência de Tecnologia [Center for Knowledge Protection, Innovation and Technology Transfer] was created to prospect innovative products and processes and then transfer them to society,” the coordinator points out.
Since the Center was set up in 2010, some of the technologies it has prospected have already been transformed into patent applications. “Today we have eight patent applications in our portfolio. It seems like a modest number in quantitative terms, but it's significant for an institution whose DNA is basic research,” Mendes reflects.
The researcher claims that the technosol is the product closest to reaching the market: “We have a wealth of knowledge here that can be directed to the market. We only offer scientific articles, theses, and dissertations, but we need to take this knowledge and turn it into products and processes that reach society at large, be it companies, startups, or communities. It has to extend beyond the Museum’s walls”.
To the heirs
The ancestral technosol can be applied to agriculture on various scales, but Milena Moraes maintains that the priorities must be family farming and agroforestry systems, which are likely to be the outlets for implementing the technology when available.
Besides being the most vulnerable segment regarding variations in the price of chemical fertilizers and also the one that can most benefit from green technologies, there is a matter of conscience involved in its the choice. “Family farmers, traditional peoples, are the legitimate descendants of those who originated the Archaeological Black Earth thousands of years ago. They are the true heirs to this technology,” asserts Amílcar Mendes.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The production of Liberal Amazon is one of the initiatives of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Liberal Group and the Federal University of Pará. The articles involving research from UFPA are revised by professionals from the academy. The translation of the content is also provided by the agreement, through the research project ET-Multi: Translation Studies: multifaces and multisemiotics.
