Potencialidades de sistemas agroflorestais integrados com plantas alimentícias não convencionais como estratégia para a restauração ecológica

Abstract

We aimed to do an essay about the potentialities of unconventional food plants when reconciled with agroforestry systems, as an ecological restoration strategy. Due to the accelerated devastation of tropical forests, a consequence of the advance and expansion of territories by agricultural activities, mainly monocultures, it is necessary that reflections on alternative models of ecological restoration have more research focus. The theoretical and practical framework of the ecology of the restoration has enabled reflections on models of environmental adequacy of agricultural landscapes, combined with the conservation of natural resources, based on the contemporary paradigm of sustainability. In this perspective, SAFs are emerging, which can potentially combine forestry, agricultural and / or animal elements, generating a source of income for small and medium farmers, who could at least partially bear the high costs of ecological restoration, and polycultures would meet the demands ecosystems, agricultural and social. Certain plants found spontaneously in the midst of agricultural crops or in places with favorable conditions for their development, are called “unconventional food plants”. These plants have numerous benefits when compared to conventional vegetables, for example, high nutritional contents, they can be consumed in a healthy way in the diet, they produce vegetable biomass, and they can contribute to the life of the farmer in the field. Therefore, it is possible to model an agroforestry system integrated with PANC to increase food production in a sustainable and diversified manner, in addition to contributing as a strategy for the restoration of degraded natural ecosystems, safeguarding food security, income and rural assistance.