The International Day of Family Farming is celebrated on July 25th. It’s a time to celebrate the diversity of foods, preparation practices, collaboration networks, autonomy, food culture, the base for food access and availability for many families living in the Amazon region.

By: Paula Mulazzani Candiago

Family farming is the production and acquisition of food through different agricultural, forestry, fishery, aquaculture and animal husbandry activities. Family farming enables access to and availability of different types of food and it ensures or increases household income.

Family farmers are those who practice or manage activities in rural areas mainly through family labor. The characteristics of these farmers are quite varied because rural properties may be located in different natural environments, vary depending on who is producing and what is being produced, and use different technologies applied to this production.

According to the latest Agricultural Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) (2017), family farming is predominant in the country, encompassing 77% of the properties and responsible for a large portion of the food consumed at Brazilian tables. The production of essential foods in the daily lives of families, such as rice, coffee, banana, cassava, pineapple, beans, and corn, is due to this form of production.

Nowadays, different public policies support small producers, fostering more sustainable food production, enabling financial incentives, technical assistance, government procurement, and the maintenance of food culture. Furthermore, there are different forms of food production that promote greater environmental sustainability, such as agroecology, organic production, agroforestry systems (SAF), and traditional agricultural systems (SAT).

In the Amazon region, we find food production that allows the autonomy of different populations, strengthening food sovereignty and resilience in the face of climatic extremes, besides encouraging the maintenance of culture and food diversity. Much knowledge from the region is transmitted through orality and practice, assuring different territorialities. 

Family farmers in the region first secure food production for their own consumption and then sell the surplus. Food production and acquisition are connected to the region’s way of life, where the water cycle determines the agricultural practices and the technological adaptations that have occurred over time.

Among the different forms of food production in the region, we would like to highlight the Rio Negro SAT, recognized as Brazilian cultural heritage by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN). This agricultural system is an intangible cultural asset of the Indigenous communities of the middle and upper Rio Negro region and it involves traditional farming knowledge, artifacts and traditional foods. Men are responsible for the coivara – the felling of forest or capoeira (secondary vegetation), followed by burning – and women are responsible for selecting seeds and manivas – cassava stems – being the mothers or caretakers of the fields. Cassava assumes a central role in the Rio Negro SAT, where more than 140 varieties of Manihot esculenta have been identified. Besides cassava, the fields are composed of pineapple, sugarcane, pepper, cará (a starchy tuber similar to yam), banana, and other tubers and fruits. The place is cultivated for a period of two or three years and then gradually abandoned, undergoing a fallow period. This system of great agrobiodiversity is the result of indigenous social organization, guided by exchange networks and shared cosmologies.

The SAF of Tomé-Açú, in Pará, were started in the 1970s by the Japanese immigrant population, inspired by the backyards with fruit and forest tree cultivation of riverine communities. Different consortia have been tested over time and the most promising crops have been forming mosaics of agroforestry systems.

In the Middle Juruá region, a great part of riverine families have agriculture as their main occupation. Cassava fields are made through coivara, and flour production mobilizes families, being the main source of income from agriculture. Flour constitutes one of the main food cultures in the region. Besides being consumed together with fish, it can be consumed in porridges, flour cakes, chibé – water with flour – tapioca and with açaí.

Photos: Stages of cassava flour preparation. The cassava, after being peeled, is ground or grated. The cassava dough is then squeezed and sieved to later be toasted in the typical ovens of the region. In the photo, the resident of Pontão do Barrote, Mr. Cosminho, toasts the flour on Juruá River. Authorship: Bernardo Oliveira (collection of Instituto Juruá).

When the river waters recede and fertilize the banks, they allow watermelon, jerimum (pumpkin), beans, among others, to be planted on the sandy “beaches,” ensuring greater food diversity, different sources of nutrients for the population, as well as providing income. The different species of fish make up one of the dietary bases of the population, being the main food resource during “hard times” for finding food. Fish are obtained through different fishing strategies, such as using tarrafa (cast nets) and arrows. The income obtained from the sale of managed pirarucu has also proven to be an important alternative for the local population.

Photos: Corn in the drying process; pirarucu in the salting process; and watermelon plantation on the floodplain beaches of the Juruá River. Authorship: Joseph Hawes; Paula Mulazzani Candiago (collection of Instituto Juruá).

Agriculture, forest resources, and animal husbandry allow income generation, but are mainly the dietary basis of this population. Despite this, there is still low income concentration and food insecurity in the region. This shows how much the resources must be optimized to add value to family farming production and thus observe improvements in income and permanent access to food through the integration of social mobilization, public policies, and different institutional levels.