Contextualization and Creative Practices in Ecological Agriculture of Ipê and Antonio Prado/RS: Super Magro Biofertilizers as Epistemic Object

Abstract

This article analyzes the production process of knowledge and innovation in organic farming. It deals specifically with the biofertilizer Super Magro, an agricultural input developed by ecologist technicians and farmers from the municipalities of Ipê and Antônio Prado/RS. For this analysis, we present a theoretical framework that explores: a) the role of the agricultural practice as locus and object (epistemic) in the production of new knowledge and innovations and b) the learning model and accumulation of contextual knowledge. The information analyzed was collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observation of ecologist technicians and farmers during the year of 2012. It can be stated that the development process of Super Magro was based on daily practice and creative reflection of technicians and farmers involved in the development of an organic farming. The process begins with the internalization of theoretical knowledge, especially the Trophobiosis Theory, and some practices already tested in other experiments related to organic production. This is followed by their contextualization or reconfiguration to better suit the knowledge and practices of farmers and the needs of existing crops, especially regarding the apple cultivation. The fact that the ecological farmers of Ipê and Antonio Prado are part of associations and of a nucleus of the Ecovida Network of Agroecology was fundamental to the activation of an intense process of socialization of the biofertilizer Super Magro among the families of ecological farmers that live in the region. Breaking with local boundaries and new environmental and social specificities, new reconfigurations occurred and new formulations of biofertilizers were, and still are, being proposed in several locations in Brazil. It can be concluded that, despite its importance in the agroecological and organic production in Brazil, this input was exclusively developed through informal processes of knowledge and innovation production, without the participation of public institutions of R&D.