Participatory monitoring and restoration of degraded soils in agroecosystems: the technique of the Cultural Profile in the “Comuna da Terra Irmã Alberta”, São Paulo / SP

Abstract

The research deals with a proposal for participatory monitoring of soil quality in Agroecosystems,
held in the settlement called “Comuna da Terra Irmã Alberta”, in order to understand the
changes caused by the use and management adopted by the families involved. This proposal
was made through the technique of the Cultural Profile, advocated by Henin et al. (1976) and
adapted by Tavares Filho et al. (1999), which seeks to differentiate the soil layers individualized
by the intervention of the cultivation instruments, the state of the roots of vegetables and the
natural factors reacting to these actions, allowing to search strategies adapted to the restructuring
of the fertility of the system, in an agroecological perspective.