Na contramão da revolução verde: Associação das Mulheres Agroecológicas do Riachuelo (AMARI) em Jiparaná-RO e a agroecologia como movimento de resistência

Abstract

The implementation of the so-called Green Revolution, starting in the mid-1960s, gave rise to the current agricultural model known as conventional or industrial agriculture. This model is characterized by its capital-intensive nature, high level of mechanization, and large-scale production of monocultures with the use of agrochemicals. This model was introduced in Brazil during the period of civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), a time when the Amazon integration project was also carried out. With the impetus of agriculture under the Green Revolution paradigm, what we now refer to as agribusiness took on a more defined shape. In contrast to this trend, from the 1980s onward, there was a response in the form of agroecological science, which studies and provides principles for sustainable agriculture, as observed in the practices of the Association of Agroecological Women of Riachuelo (Associação das Mulheres Agroecológicas do Riachuelo - AMARI), located in Ji-Paraná, Rondônia, the subject of this research. The objective of this research is to understand the reasons that led the women farmers of this association to choose agroecology in a state where the conventional agriculture model is so strongly encouraged and, consequently, dominant. Using oral history as a methodological and theoretical framework and relying on the principles that underlie agroecology, interviews were conducted with the women farmers, and relevant literature on the subject was reviewed. This allowed for the analysis of the diversity of reasons that drive them to engage in agroecological practices. These reasons include the promotion of health, the possibility of reclaiming traditional knowledge, and the preservation of natural resources on their properties, such as water sources. There are also subjective reasons, such as the opportunity to form emotional bonds with the planting process and the coherence with the ethical principles each farmer holds. Overall, the combination of these reasons underpins the resistance of this group, which has been able to establish a way of re-existing in rural areas.