Biodiversidade em sistemas orgânicos de produção e elementos conceituais acerca da agroecologia na comunidade acadêmica

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the main drivers of species diversity loss on the planet. Besides, the most common farming practice, conventional farming, is surrounded by many social contradictions also endangering farmers. In this context, there is an expectancy for an increase in food demand, which presents a global challenge: how to increase food production without intensifying the environmental and social crisis we are facing? One of the biggest promises to aim this challenge, is the alternative farming models, such as organic and agroecological. However, there is still a debate about what is the real effect of alternative farming on species diversity and what would be the most appropriate ways for implementing policies since the conceptualization of organic and agroecological farming is not totally established yet. In this way, this thesis aimed at understanding the current scientific knowledge produced on organic farming, evaluating the effects of this type of farming on species richness and abundance, and evaluating the perceptions of civil society over the term agroecology. We found that, even though there is a large production about organic farming, there is little accuracy on the definition of farming management, as well as a lack of the effects of landscape and time since transition on organic farming. Organic farming increases the global species richness, but specifically increases pest and plant richness. In contrast, it reduces the abundance of pests and herbivores, and increases the abundance of pollinators and predators. We also found that the most accepted concept of agroecology is reflected in the perception that civil society has over it. Therefore, we recommend that (1) studies on alternative farming, organic or agroecological, should be more rigorous about the management of cultivars, as well as to advance on evaluating the effects of landscape and time since transition on organic farming; (2) the absence of industrial inputs may be the main factor promoting positive effects on species diversity, and (3) we should amplify the investigations about the term agroecology to fully evaluate the understanding of civil society about this concept.