The red landscape and enormous canyons of Gilbués, in Brazil’s Piaui state, are like something out of a science-fiction film. That’s what makes the occasional oasis of green peeping through the raw earth such a surprise, contributor Rafael Martins writes for Mongabay.
In his early days in Gilbués, farmer José Rodrigues do Santos had to carry water every day to irrigate the dry soil. Things are much better today than they were a few years ago, he told Mongabay. “Our well and the technology improved our life a lot.”
It was through a 2006 Ministry of Environment project aimed at combating desertification, common in this part of Brazil, that local farmers like Santos gained access to the modern technology and tools they needed to manage the soil and develop farming.
“We have improved 1,000% since 2006,” Francisco Washington Junior, Santos’s son-in-law and fellow farmer, told Mongabay. “We began here in Gilbués producing 20 bags of corn per hectare. Today we produce 120.”
Washington also grows vegetables, including lettuce, carrots, garlic, onions and beans. “When I came to this place, no one believed I would be able to grow anything,” he said. “But now — just look! Every day I come out and manage to pick food for my family with enough left over to sell.”
The difference came down to good land management, such as planting trees in gullies to prevent soil erosion and improving soil nutrients.
Soil and plant nutrition specialist Fabriciano Neto told Mongabay that the region’s lithic soils are rich in phosphorous but poor in nitrogen. Plants can grow if these shortcomings are compensated for.
Another technique farmers use is silaging, a way to ferment and store corn for longer. By covering corn with a tarp and a layer of soil to limit oxygen exposure, they can keep it from rotting. This way, even in the dry season, farmers have quality, nutrient-rich feed for their animals.
The municipality of Gilbués was the only place where this program was implemented. It continued until 2016, hosting studies and tests on ways to control degradation and recuperate already degraded areas.
No one knows just why it was shut down, Martins writes. That same year, 2016, then-President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and several of her ministers replaced, including the environment minister.
Gilbués City Hall adviser José Marlos told Mongabay that there are some prospects for starting up the project again, including a look at biofertilizer production. However, Martins visited the headquarters of the project and reported that it looked shuttered and abandoned.
Still, the seeds planted by the project continue to sprout in Gilbués, transforming the landscape and creating alternatives for those fighting to develop their part of this sea of red earth.
This is a summary of “In a desertscape in Brazil, science brings farms to bountiful life” by Rafael Martins.
Banner image of farmland in the desertified landscape of Gilbués, by Rafael Martins for Mongabay.
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