Food of plant origin production, which is compatible with the standing forest, generates R$ 24 billion per year for the economy of the Amazon biome. The best thing is that these foods are grown through sustainable practices, which ensure the preservation of the largest rainforest in the world. Products that many people do not give up having on the table, such as açaí, cassava, and cocoa, are the most produced in the region - the exception is the state of Mato Grosso, where commodities such as soybeans are the most produced.

Those data come from the Observatory of Knowledge and Innovation in Bioeconomy (OCBio), a department at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), based on records in the Municipal Agricultural Research Database from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), for the year 2022.

According to the study, agricultural production registered R$ 118.5 billion in 2022, in the 496 municipalities that compose the biome. R$ 94.1 billion from this amount was generated by the production of soybean, corn, and cotton. However, most of this production comes from Mato Grosso, generating R$ 74.4 billion - only R$ 19.8 billion are from the other Amazonian states. In addition to açaí, cassava, and cocoa, products such as coffee, bananas, sugarcane, dendê palm oil, pineapple, rice, and beans generated a higher sum, R$ 24.4 billion. Therefore, with the exception of Mato Grosso, the items that IBGE considers to be associated with the Amazon biome and with sustainable practices produced a higher amount.

Maurício Batista, from Itupiranga, in southeastern Pará, is an agricultural producer. He abandoned deforestation practices and now grows products more compatible with the standing forest, such as açaí, cocoa, banana, and ice-cream beans.

"I used to cut down forests and plant grass because cattle production still predominates in this region. Today, the environment is drying up even more, and people are deforesting, without knowing that cocoa and açaí are productive plants that contribute to the environment and generate income to support family maintenance,” he argues.

Productivity

FGV's research about the year 2022 indicates that the production of the biome's cost corresponded to only 14.3% of the national profit. The production also corresponded to 14.4% of the harvested area, even with the region comprisal of about 50% of the Brazilian territory. According to Eduardo Pavão, an agronomist and researcher at OCBio, this is explained first because the Amazon has many protected areas and second because of the tough logistics of production and runoff and the low adoption of technologies.

Pavão explains that it is necessary to boost production sustainably and strategically in the region, developing production chains and focusing on products considered compatible with the forest. That is, products that can be produced by agriculture or extractivism, without deforestation or degradation.

“It is also necessary to think about the subsequent stages, such as adding value to products through processing, offering them to domestic trading or exporting. In addition, there is a logistical challenge: it is necessary to optimize transportation because the logistics network of the region is very different from the rest of the country. Agents connected to the production chain need to reach the producer, bringing information, technification, and good agricultural practices to increase productivity. Another important aspect is to advance in land tenure regularization, which ensures financing lines and rural insurance that consider the Amazonian context", says the agronomist.

Historic sustainability

Danilo Fernandes, coordinator of the Graduate Program in Economics at the Federal University of Pará, recalls that the Amazon biome has a tradition of rural production anchored in the sustainable management of biodiversity.

"Throughout history, the migrant populations that have settled here have been learning, from traditional peoples and communities, the most sustainable techniques to deal with all this diversity. This long history ended up solidifying a production structure with very specific characteristics when compared to the rest of the country”, says the economist.

In the professor's opinion, the risk to the sustainability of this production comes from outside and not from within the region itself. "The accelerated advance of monoculture activities disarticulates the life context of populations that have learned to manage this diversity since a long time ago. This line of action resulted in the environmental and social disaster associated with the advance of the agricultural frontier, the land conflict, the indebtedness of small farmers, and the advance of deforestation in the southernmost area of the Amazon, in part of the state of Mato Grosso, where a significant part of the economy of Amazonian diversity no longer practically exists”, considers Fernandes.

Exportation boost

Salo Coslovsky, bachelor in Management, is part of the Amazon 2030 initiative, which brings together researchers from various areas of knowledge who intend to develop a sustainable development plan for the region. One of Colosvsky's research focuses on the compatibility of the production with the forest and its potential, including exportation.

He points out that Amazon's share in the world market is only 0.2% today. “In my research, I estimated that enterprises based in the region earn almost US$ 300 million per year, exporting 60 forest-compatible products. It sounds reasonable, and it's a start, but the global market profit for these same products is almost US$ 200 billion a year,” he details.

Coslovsky says there are several possible paths to boost sustainable production in the region, such as credits, roads, and training among other initiatives. In his opinion, it is necessary to identify bottlenecks and study the most promising solutions for each production chain. "And we need to build more bridges between the bioeconomy we have – with its producers, associations, cooperatives, middlemen, grain growers and beneficiaries – and the bioeconomy we want, which is more inclusive, productive, and innovative.”

The expert studied some production chains, in particular açaí, cocoa, environmental restoration, and Brazil nuts. "It is one of the jewels of the forest, which competes in the global market with other nuts such as almonds, cashews and pistachios. But it has a history, a nutritional value and a socio-environmental contribution much more expressive than its competitors. We need to tell this story and create the conditions for it to be considered and evaluated differently from the others,” he argues.

Cutting-edge technologies

The production of food of plant origin in the Amazon, whether through agriculture, forestry, or extractivism, can be enhanced by technologies that ensure the maintenance of the standing forest. One of the greatest exponents of this production is the agroforestry system (AFS), which advocates the growing of trees associated with agricultural production. A great example practiced in the Amazon is that of cocoa AFSs, grown along with other crops that grow faster and help with shading, such as cassava or banana. In addition to environmental conservation or recovery, the system provides other advantages, such as biodiversity conservation, soil improvement, and greenhouse gas mitigation.

“The agroforestry system, with no doubts, is what we have defended as the model that most resembles and should be recommended for Amazonian conditions,” says Walkymário Lemos, general manager of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa) Eastern Amazon.

“At a glance, [the AFS] proposes to, let us say this way, imitate the forest. By imitating the forest, the AFS allows diversity. We can have different species composing this system, such as açaí, cocoa, forest species, and food species that will offer a diversity of income. Admittedly, they are also systems that recover degraded areas,” complements the agronomist.

Embrapa researches several sustainable technologies that, in addition to combat degradation processes, enrich and increase productivity. Many of them focus on the production of items associated with the Amazon biome, compatible with the forest. Lemos cites some main chains: açaí, cocoa, cassava, and typical fruits such as cupuaçu.

“Last year, we launched the cupuaçu clonal kit. These are five clonal materials that, when planted simultaneously, increase productivity by almost six times. It is also a production resistant to an important disease for both cupuaçu and cocoa, which is the witch's broom”, he explains.

Cassava, on the other hand, relies on the technology of the “Bragança's system”, the growth along with beans and other crops from family farming. “We have a technology called the productivity trio, in which we mix quality genetics, fertilizer, soil correction, and proper spacing, significantly increasing productivity,” he explains.

"The açaí chain, a fruit crop that is synonymous with the Amazon, synonymous with Pará, has technologies for planting on dry land: the BRS Pará and the BRS Pai d'égua," points out the Embrapa general manager. In these systems, the fruit, which is traditional for the floodplain and igapó area, can be produced on dry land and throughout the year.

Mauricio Batista, from Itupiranga-PA, participated in Inovaflora, one of Embrapa's projects, developed in southeastern Pará to promote forest restoration through native species planting in an agroforestry system. In addition to the crops in AFS, Batista created a permanent protection area on his property, in a spring area.

"The cattle were trampling this spring and it almost dried up. Embrapa encouraged me to isolate this area and plant native species. Nowadays, four years later, the forest has grown and the spring produces water again. My production has increased, I am very satisfied. I have embraced this cause [of the environment]," he celebrates.

Local development

Walkymário Lemos points out that Embrapa's technologies benefit Amazonian communities and the region, helping to preserve the biome. "When we develop technologies for crops that our communities are used to, such as açaí, cocoa, and even wood in community forest management systems, we are allowing our populations to generate income. When generating income, we expect the reduction of social distancing, taking these populations out of invisibility. We believe and defend that science is a vector of technological, social, and economic change".

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.