Embrapa Amazonia Oriental’s first open social innovation project will help in the recovery, evaluation and professionalization of food culture in the Northeast Pare. Traditional knowledge and agricultural science combine to produce edible flour based on the socio-biodiversity products and bioactives of the region.

For Embrapa, community farmers value the identity, culture and heritage of family farmers, peoples and traditional communities by combining science with popular knowledge. It is on this principle that the Bragentina Solidarity Economic Network, in partnership with the Arts and Flavors, has formed an organization that brings together more than 400 family farming families through a mixed collaboration of family farmers between the Kate and Gurupi Rivers (Coomer). Five municipalities in Para. The municipalities of Sao Lucia do Pare, Braganസa, Augusto Correa, Cachora do Pirik and Visu are part of the network.

According to project leader Embrapa researcher Laura Aubrey, the partnership will last for two years and will involve the distribution of technological assets developed in partnership with the community, in response to the real needs of the public involved. “The Bragentina Network has a tradition of producing edible flours and foods from agricultural transformations such as fruits and tubers, which will be the focus of our work,” he explained.

As a result, the creation of new flours will be based on different bioactives from fruits and tubers that are part of the food culture and cultivation of this part of the Amazon, the scientist added. The whole process will be participatory, and in this journey and exchange of knowledge, we will use science to validate traditional knowledge by establishing traditional training protocols, describing the ingredients and their nutritional potential, and complying with current law. markets Dispute over formal markets “, reveals Laura Aubrey.

The partnership was officially announced in August, and in early September, the first field visit to identify farms and farmers’ families in the participating municipalities had already distributed the raw materials used for the development of the flour.

In the manufacture of flour traditionally joins the surplus production

Rede Bragantina has a tradition of making handicrafts, and a portion of the five municipalities that make it are geographically located.

Nazareth Reyes, an agronomist in charge of the organization of farmers in the project, explains that while the GI of cassava flour is a source of pride for everyone, the project will create new flours using fruits and tubers that are part of the food culture of families. Amazon farmers. “Apart from eating brass palms and other boiled tubers instead of coffee for breakfast or lunch, it is a tradition in the area to make porridge with dates, tapioca, turmeric and ghee,” he explains.

Nassar recalls that family farmers who have been part of the Bragentina Network, which has been in operation for about 15 years, have been making handloom cassava flour, which is widely used in local cuisine, but have been trying to create other flours in recent years. A view of the preparation of porridge and baked goods. “Partnership with Embrapa will professionalize this process, planting, harvesting, preparation, shelf life, and qualifying our collaborators,” he celebrates.

Farmers need to make flour using products from biodiversity, because in addition to adding value and creating new products, it will solve the problem of losing surplus food. Nazareth Reyes explains that the network’s activities included the recovery of extinct traditional foods such as purple caraway and arrowroot.

It allied itself with agrarian transformation as an agricultural system for farming families and a solidarity economy, and had raw materials, product concepts, and marketing networks. “Embrapa arrives to crown the process by bringing in science evaluation, improvements and new products to ensure the sovereignty, income and quality of food,” she says.

Partnerships make farmers react together

According to researcher Tatiana S according, the relationship between Embrapa and the Bregantina Network is also a tradition. Puxiram is the focal point of Embrapa’s Sustainable Development Goals in Paris and the coordinator of the Agrological Center. “The network has been an old partner since the activities of the Tipitamba project, agricultural transformation and Swedish systems without burning in agriculture,” he says.

Tatiana celebrates that this relationship was integrated into Embrapa’s first open social innovation project in Pare. “Partnership fits in with everything that supports the concept of social innovation, as it is based on collective production and respect for knowledge. All this, “says the scientist.

The researcher knows that this type of construction will be more enriching as it is embedded in the portfolio of concrete activities embroidered in response to the community recommended by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs are a global commitment established by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 and include a global agenda for formulating and implementing common policies based on human development from the perspective of human development, the planet, prosperity, participation and peace.