Unified Agriculture

Thirty-eight plantations free of pesticides – such as manioc, plantain, sweet potato and cilantro – are part of the “Unified Agriculture” Social-Environmental Project, designed to help generate income in São Roque do Paraguaçu, located in the district of Maragojipe (BA).

The initiative of teaching families to plant and harvest for their own sustenance, in an environmentally responsible fashion and aiming toward the creation of a cooperative, was an idea that emerged at the Rio Paraguaçu Consortium in 2008. Since then, the group formed by Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial, UTC Engenharia and Queiroz Galvão has continued to operate in this region of Recôncavo Baiano, site to the construction of two self-lifting rigs for oil prospection by Petrobras: the P-59 and P-60.

The consortium’s investments began with the training of 25 families in agricultural techniques and soil management. To improve the quality of life of the planters and final consumers of the cultivated fruits and vegetables, the project is combating the practice of land burning to prepare the soil and implemented the production of fertilizer using composting. The technique reuses the stalks and peels of the products that are thrown out by the cooperative itself.

Shortly one year after the first harvest, the cooperative had already celebrated the following achievements:

• Increase in the number of participating families, from 25 to 162;
• Sale of 25 tons of food to SodexHo, the company responsible for the meals served at the P-59 and P-60 construction site, and which donated the first seeds to the project;
• Sale of 25% of the production to the community itself, creating solid bases to ensure the project’s self-sustainability even after the end of the consortium's activities.

From Subsistence to Retail

In 2011, the major highlight was the inclusion of the term “family farming” in the statute that regulates the São Roque do Paraguaçu Farmers’ Cooperative.

With the change, the cooperative members will be able to supply products for the National School Meal Program, in addition to serving the Maragogipe City Government with 30% of the products used in the lunches for the municipal public school system.

The support from the local government will also allow for the consolidated sale of the produce to the community by revitalizing the outdoor fair in the district of São Roque do Paraguaçu. The agricultural training actions will be extended as long as the consortium’s work continued, together with periodic lectures on cooperativism, associativism, management and finances.