Twelve years of soil preservation and rehabilitation at Rio do Peixe
watershed, promoting conservation agriculture
Abstract
This work aimed to test innovations for the diagnosis of agricultural
properties at Rio do Peixe Watershed, to locate erosions and to correct
them by changing soil management, aiming at recovering degraded areas,
rehabilitating them and promoting conservation agriculture, evaluating
the results by remote sensing and water quality indicators. In 2019, it
turned twelve years of inspection/monitoring at Rio do Peixe Watershed.
From 2007 to 2017, using the Conventional CDA methodology, 14,076 ha
were inspected at Vera Cruz sector, 94 properties were notified and in
Ocauçu, 82 properties, located in 9,027 ha. As a work strategy, in
Marília, the Innovative CDA Methodology was used, which allowed the
inspection and rehabilitation of 52 properties in 27,775 ha, from 2017
to 2018. After the notifications, the owners presented the
conservationist technical projects for each property, which were
implemented, using conservation practices such as improving vegetation
cover and crop rotation to control laminar erosion and agricultural
terracing, divergent channels and containment basin to control gullies
erosions. This work promoted a transformation from degrading agriculture
to conservation agriculture, having degraded pastures transformed into
an agricultural area, implementing the No-tillage system. Pastures were
recovered by implementing the Integrated Crop-Livestock System; it was
possible to increase the occupancy rate by 31% comparing to the
original situation. This is a great work that benefits Watershed
farmers, increasing productivity and consequently the profit, as well as
for the local people improving the quality of water that supplies the
region of Marília.