 The Brazilian Articulação Nacional de Agroecologia sees itself as an open space which brings together networks, organisations and social movements involved in the promotion of agroecology and sustainable rural development, working in the country's different regions. Its aim is to promote agroecology as an alternative for the sustainability of the small scale family production systems, and as an ecological and democratic development model. Its work is based on two main objectives: favouring and intensifying the exchange of information, and strengthening the capacities of its members to document and analyse their experiences, draw lessons, share these lessons, and contribute to national policies.
Between the 2nd and the 6th of June, 2006, ANA organised the II Encontro Nacional de Agroecologia in Recife. One of the seminars specifically focused on the process which help to "build agroecological knowledge". The objective was to analyse how the organisations which work around agroecology in Brazil have developed their own practice and their research and extension activities; to look at their results and the difficulties faced, and to document their experiences. Ten organisations were invited to present the results of their own documentation and systematization processes, all of which were carried out following the Terms of Reference ellaborated by ANA.
 Read the TORs
(in Portuguese)
Debate during the workshop focused on three specific issues:
1. How does the agroecological approach become evident in the cases presented? What are the main differences and similarieties? What challenges emerge?
2. What has been the role of the farmers, their families and their organisations? What role have women played in the collective processes aimed at building knowledge?
3. How have these processes helped the interaction between academic knoweldge and that of the farmers involved in each experience? How effective have the methodologies used in bridging these two fields?
ANA's Building Knowledge Working Group published the results of this workshop under the name "Construção de Conhecimento Agroecologico" in June 2007. This book includes the eleven cases which were presented at the II ENA, edited to include the results of the workshop itself. (Download here a PDF file, approx. 3 MB.)
Read the synthesis written by Ailton Dias dos Santos
(in Portuguese)
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