Group of Ecological Agriculture of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro participating in the construction and maintenance of non-formal teaching-learning spaces

Abstract

Currently the academic teaching offered to courses in agrarian in the country still presents
mainly focus on subjects related to agribusiness. In this scenario, in search of alternative knowledge
to those presented in the formal spaces of the institutions, in 1983 UFRuralRJ appears
the Group of Ecological Agriculture (GAE) as non formal and informal space of education.
Self-managed by students of various courses, has the purpose of studying, practicing and
diffusing agroecology. From this organization, the Group conducts the Course on Introduction
to Agroecology (CIA), with debates such as food sovereignty, socio-environmental conflicts,
agrarian reform and agroecology, culminating in two experiences at Sítio São José, Paraty -
RJ, in 2016. This Search for a broader understanding of agroecology, through the construction
of knowledge and indissociability between teaching, research and extension, it is possible
therefore to recognize it as a very important space for non-formal education.