Agricultural Defense of São Paulo: twelve years of soil preservation and
rehabilitation at Rio do Peixe watershed, promoting conservation
agriculture
Abstract
The objectives of this study are to test innovations for the farms
diagnosis, to locate erosion and to correct them with changes in the way
of soil management, to aiming transforming Rio do Peixe Watershed
properties that were degraded, rehabilitating them, promoting
conservationist agriculture whit evaluating the results through remote
sensing and water quality indicators. Secretariat of Agriculture of São
Paulo State (SA), responsible for applying the Soil Conservation Law,
has been carrying out this study for 20 years, working up 772,000 ha,
with 19,846 agricultural properties. In 2019, it turned twelve years of
inspection/monitoring at the Rio do Peixe Watershed. From 2007 to 2017
14,076 ha were inspected in Vera Cruz, with notification of 94
properties that went from degraded into agricultural companies. In
Ocauçu, 82 properties were notified, on 8,125 ha. Besides other tested
methodologies, model airplanes and helicopters, in Marília the
Innovative CAD Methodology was used, which allowed 52 properties to be
inspected on 27,000 ha from 2017 to 2019. There were transformations of
degrading agriculture into conservation agriculture on the study carried
out at Rio do Peixe Watershed. Property with degraded pasture turned
into an agricultural area, with the no-tillage system. Pastures were
recovered with the Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems, where the
occupancy rate was increased by 31% comparing to the original
situation. It is a great work that benefits the Watershed farmers and
the population in the region, including improving the water quality that
supplies Marília. It is the SA “Caring for the Well-Being of Society”.