The main objective of the project is to support the development of technologies that are appropriate for small scale agriculture in order to help keep rural families in their land, respecting the cultural and environmental diversity.
Forty nine families that live in the Santo Dias Settlement in the rural zone of Guapé municipality, Minas Gerais state, benefit from the project. The area was taken over in XXX by the families of Guapé belonging to the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (Movimento dos Sem Terra - MST). On March 15, 2007 the settlement contract was finally signed.
Guapé municipality is located on the margins of the Furnas reservoir. The region?s main economical activities are cattle ranching, coffee and maize agriculture and quartzite rock exploitation.
The settlement area used to be a sugar cane mill and later a cattle ranching farm. The pastures used to be managed by fire, which often reached nearby native vegetation. Forty per cent of the settlement land is made up of preserved Cerrado with an excellent pequi (Caryocar brasiliense) tree reserve. After the settlement was created, fire no longer reached the Cerrado. Part of the damaged riparian forests is being reforested by the community.
The settlement community often uses alternative ways of production to promote sustainable rural development. Examples can be seen in their practices: all cattle diseases are treated by use of homeopathic medicine, land management is done by animal traction and most of the production comes from Agroforestry.
The settlement won a monetary prize from the Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development of about US$8,000.00 for systematization of agro-ecological experiences. This money will be used to build a settlement memorial museum and composting toilet.