Apicultural systems as a design tool for agroecological methods of endogenous development in Brazil

Abstract

Applying of Agroecology to the field of apicultural systems demands a methodological pluralism, that orchestrates findings of both Natural and Social Sciences, and that links the local empirical knowledge,the peasant and indigenous knowledge,with the scientific knowledge.This paper characterizes the process of agroecological research on beekeeping systems being developed jointly by the Institute of Sociology and Peasants Studies (ISEC) / University of Córdoba (UCO) and the Temperate Climate Unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (EMBRAPA): the first in Andalusia, Spain, and the second in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Research is carried out on four different production experiences: a peasant family agriculture, a settlement of agrarian reform, an afro descendant community ‘quilombola’ and a guarani native village. The systems are managed in contexts of agroecological farming, but include africanized honeybees and native stingless bees under integrated production into crops and trees. Under a sociological dimension of the processes of accompanying the social movements, dynamics of participatory action research are been generated, following the farmers guidelines, seeking to change reality through ways of endogenous development and of institutionalization the dialogue of knowledge.