University extension project promotes backyard agriculture in Tabatinga, Amazonas

    A university extension project is promoting backyard agriculture in Tabatinga, municipality of Amazonas. The initiative seeks to encourage the production of food and medicinal plants in urban areas, especially by women.

    Conducted by the Laboratory of Agroecology of the Degree in Biological Sciences of the Center for Higher Studies of Tabatinga CESTB/UEA, coordinated by Professor Dr. Camilo T. Sanchez.

The university extension project "Agriculture of Urban Family Backyards in Tabatinga Amazonas" was created in 2019, with the aim of promoting agriculture on small family properties in urban areas, especially in the hands of women. The university extension project "Agriculture of Urban Family Backyards in Tabatinga Amazonas" aims to encourage agriculture in small family properties in urban areas, especially in the hands of women, promoting the production of food and medicinal plants in urban environments.

    The project has several activities, such as monitoring on environmental legislation and ecology of tropical forests, in addition to studies on the agrobiodiversity of medicinal plants in families in the Dom Pedro I and Comunicações neighborhoods, in the urban area of the municipality of Tabatinga.

In addition, the project seeks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defined by the UN, through actions such as the planting of ornamental trees, fruit trees and palm trees in urban backyards, in order to promote urban afforestation and the preservation of local biodiversity. 

Another initiative of the project is the appreciation of traditional knowledge about the use of medicinal plants. 

 Conceptual art home gardens

    Through interviews with elderly women in the region, the project rescues knowledge and practices that are being forgotten, in order to promote the sustainable use of these plants and the preservation of traditional knowledge. In addition to extension activities, the project also includes scientific and technological initiation initiatives, such as the survey and ethnobotanical analysis of food plants present in urban backyards, and the rescue of traditional knowledge about the use of the Mastruz backyard plant, with the application in the local economy.

    The project has expanded, including other regions such as São Paulo de Olivença, and seeks to promote the sustainable use of natural resources, encouraging the local production of food and medicinal plants, and rescuing the region's traditional knowledge.

In order to assess the progress of extension activities linked to this project and to PROEXT/UEA Notice 057/2022, an oral presentation of the Extension Projects for the 6th month of project activities was carried out from 03/8/2023 to 03/14/2023.

    

    On this occasion, 2 projects were presented: Rescue of traditional knowledge and uses of the backyard plant Mastruz (Dysphania ambrosioides) and its application in the economy of the municipality of Benjamin Constant-AM in pursuit of the objectives of sustainable development ODS, by student Francimeire Oliveira, and Urban backyard farming of the Crajiru plant (Arrabidaea chica) in the city of Tabatinga-AM: Crajiru women and medicinal plants in pursuit of the SDGs, by student Raquel Grandes Dias .