“Healthy soils give family farmers autonomy, resilience and long-term productivity” - Interview with Irene Cardoso — AgriCultures Network
“If you have a healthy, living soil, you have healthy plants and healthy people. These three things are closely linked.” Irene Cardoso, a professor of soil science at the Federal University of Viçosa and a member of ILEIA’s board is passionate about soils and family farmers. In her role as president of the Brazilian Agroecology Association, she advocates for greater support for family farmers to take better care of their soils. “Family farmers live from the soil, but they also live on the soil.”
- Irene Cardoso
What links family farmers and soils?
This depends on the type of agriculture you are looking at. In industrial agriculture, the soil is regarded as little more than a substrate to which fertilizer and seeds are added. In this type of agriculture, which requires expensive inputs and creates an unhealthy environment, family farmers may lose everything.
However, in sustainable agriculture or agroecology, the soil is very important. Good soil quality gives farmers autonomy, resilience and long-term productivity. This is why healthy soil is important for family farmers. But family farmers are also important for soils, because building and maintaining healthy soils requires work – exactly what family farmers do.
Many farmers all over the world tell me “the land has to function” and they know they have to make it function. As they work with nature all the time, they see the difference between living ..........
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