Syntropic agriculture is an agroforestry system that mimics natural forest ecosystems to create sustainable and regenerative farming practices.
The concept was popularized by Brazilian farmer and researcher Ernst Götsch and has gained attention worldwide as a promising approach to sustainable agriculture.
Born in 1948 in Raperswilen, Switzerland, Ernst Götsch migrated to Brazil in the early 1980s, settling on a farm in the cocoa-growing region of southern Bahia.
“Wouldn’t we achieve greater results if we sought ways of cultivation that favor the development of plants, rather than creating genotypes that support the bad conditions we impose them?”
“We are not the intelligent ones, we are part of an intelligent system. I am not the owner, nor the boss, nor the manager. I am an endobiont being of the macroorganism” – Ernst Götsch
Agroforestry practices can vary widely. Ernst distinguished his practices with diffrent principles so the name Syntropic Agriculture.
One of the main objectives is to achieve a positive energy balance in our interaction with the environment. In other words, achieving Sustainability is the result of never taking more than what we produce in the planet.
It focuses on promoting biodiversity, soil health, and long-term productivity while reducing the need for external inputs.
- Soil Health
- Biodiversity
- Carbon Sequestration
- Water Management
- Crop Diversification
- Timber and Non-Timber Forest Products
- Erosion Control
- Economic Regeneration
- Habitat Restoration
- Cultural and Indigenous Knowledge Preservation
- Processes instead of inputs
- Diversity of plants
- Density of plants
- Constant dynamics – pruning
- Succession and stratification
- Minimize soil disturbance
- No soil exposure
- Eco-physiological functions
- Inpired on natural ecosystems
