| Local techniques are restored and applied, such as the cultivation of river and reservoir banks after
the floods recede. Slowly, Tamanduá Farm is becoming a technical reference center, with
agreements signed with SEBRAE and INCRA, receiving trainees from the
South, and organizing field days.
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Field
days
at Fazenda Tamanduá |
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Thanks
to the BioFach Brasil Project, we have included the Northeast in the
list of seminars, whose aim is to open up a national market for
organic products.
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Our
organic mango production system is an economically viable reality that
is already being followed by small and medium-size producers, a fact
that may make the Patos region a center of certified organic fruit
growing.
Melon
growing is another option which we will work on, depending on the
amount of water available.
Mocó Agropecuária Ltda., already holding organic certification, has
decided to direct the Farm’s activities along the path of biodynamic
farming, following the philosophical principles of the scientific
humanist Rudolf Steiner and projecting it within the concept of a
“farming organism”.
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BioFach Seminar at Fazenda Tamanduá |
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We are
already producing and using biodynamized preparations, a type of
agricultural homeopathy produced on the basis of crystals and
medicinal plants, which constitutes a phytotherapy that helps the
plants to fulfill their functions better. Thus,
Tamanduá Farm, with its diversified flora and fauna and its beautiful
landscapes, perfectly integrating cattle raising, agriculture and
fruit growing, may obtain the Demeter certification, the peak of the
process we have started.
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THE
COMPOST: an exemple of integration of all activities, farming and
pastoral.
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Compost
is the soul of the fertilizing technique used at Tamanduá Farm. One
of the problems ( another one!) faced in the semi-arid region is the
lack of sources of carbon to serve as a basis for this compost: there
are no left-overs from crops, especially straw, because the cattle eat
everything. |
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Just
like many other fruit trees, the mango tree is trained by pruning, in
order to raise the skirt of the tree, making access easier; to open up
the crown in order to let in more light, causing better exposure of
the fruit to sunlight; or to reduce the height of the tree so as to
make harvesting easier.
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So
we decided to grind up the branches resulting from this pruning so as
to obtain an appropriate product as a basis for the compost - it
proved to be of very good quality for that purpose.
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In
order to complete the volumes needed, we also decided to process black
jurema (Mimosa hostilis Benth), an endemic leguminous
bush (one of the five most common species on the farm, according to
the survey carried out).
It is a quick-growing, invasive, xerophilous, thorny plant,
which is cut to a sustainable extent, in specific areas or at the time
the pastures are cleaned up.
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Processed
jurema |
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Bees
pollinate
the flowers
of both
mango trees
and jurema,
producing
delicious honey.
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Watering
with milk whey the pile already covered of MB4 and phosphate. |
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Then
the process is started : a mixture of manure taken from the stables of
the organic dairy cattle with this source of carbon - to which the
left-overs from the barns are added - in the proportion of 1/3 of
manure to 2/3 of carbon, is made manually in small piles. 1% of MB4,
ground rock powder, 1.5% of Bahia phosphate, 0.5% of ashes, and milk
whey from the cheese production process are added. The humidity of the
piles is kept constant, in order to favor an increase in temperature
and anaerobic fermentation.
The
piles are frequently turned over with the blade of a tractor and are
put on top of each other, making them higher each time.
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With
the high temperature prevailing in the sertão, in 6
months an excellent compost is obtained. It will return to the
mango trees in the form of fertilizer applied in furrows dug
under the irrigation hoses; the slow action of the dripping
devices will speed up decomposition and the effect on the trees.
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It
will also be mixed with
the buffel grass or mandante grass seeds before they are
sown in the pastures during the rainy season.
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Plantation
of the pastures |
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At
harvest time, part of the mangoes are exported fresh and the remainder
is dried.
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Mango
stones and discarded mangoes are fed to the cattle, whose excrement
forms
manure, completing the cycle,
which then starts all over again.
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