Principles of Syntropic

Agriculture

according to Ernst Götsch

José Fernando dos Santos Rebello
2018

(THIS VERSION WAS TRANSLATED BY GOOGLE TRANSLATE,

if there is any misunderstanding please refer to the original Portuguese Version)

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 Photo Felipe Pasini

Cover photo - Castanheira, Bertholletia excelsa, 16 years old, planted by Ernst on his farm in Bahia. Thanks to the
syntropic handling, its diameter at chest height should not be anything close to that of a eucalyptus of the same age.
After this initial phase of rapid growth, a chestnut tree can grow as much as an eucalyptus, with the advantage of
producing a wood of excellent quality and fruits of high biological value.

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 Preface

So I heard ...

I met Ernst Götsch in 1994, when I was still a student of agronomy, and his lecture at the
University was so shocking to me that shortly afterwards a few other friends and I found
ourselves on his farm, to understand the great transformation that he had been carrying out on the
land. His knowledge of how nature works is so profound that even today, it still feels like the first
class each time we meet.
This book was written by people in love with nature and with Planet Earth; people who believe it
pays to do the best to take care of it, even if they do not see the results. It is entirely based on the
teachings of Ernst Götsch. The urgent need to publicize a production system that produces tons
of healthy and tasty food, recovers degraded areas, returns water to lost springs, and brings back
our forests, has pushed us into this endeavor. It is far from being a definitive guide on syntropic
agriculture, since the knowledge about this agriculture is as dynamic as the agroforests built by
Ernst Götsch. We also do not wish the paper to freeze the concepts, because each day its creator
perfects the methods and the interpretation of how nature works. Knowledge, like life, carries this
impermanence, and we have to be open-minded and unarmed to understand that life is not static,
but dynamic and impermanent. We also have no commercial objective, so we are making this
book available on the international computer network - the internet. In this way it is also easy to
correct the errors, for true listening implies a great concentration, which we confess we cannot
always achieve. If we succeed, we have no doubt, the honour belongs to our Master; if we fail to
interpret the concepts... that's how we heard.
If mankind can create truly sustainable food production systems, overcoming the obstacles it has
created, I have no doubt that this path will at some point find the syntropic agriculture created by
Ernst Götsch.
All images, graphs and drawings are copies of the original drawings proposed by Ernst Götsch in
many classes attended in the last 23 years, and are always changing, in a constant improvement
of the art of harvesting the Sun.

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Acknowledgments
To Ernst Götsch, for being present at the time of my existence, Cimara, Renate, my brother
Antonio, my family, Dani, Cora, Zé Pedro and Bernardo, Agenda Gotsch, Namaste, Henrique,
Fabiana Peneireiro, Ursula, Juã, Romulo, Patricia Vaz, Karen Ranzi, Rodrigo and Denise,
Gudrum, Craig and Neil, Marcio Armando, Sofia, Augusto Carvalho, Thiago, students of the
long term course of the Gotsch Agenda and all agroforestry of all "ethnicities" of the planet, my
eternal gratitude. A very special and profound thanks to Pedro Paulo Diniz for his pioneering
large-scale synoptic agriculture, and Felipe, Dayana and Edmara Barbosa, who succeeded in
their incredible ability and mastery of the magic of cinema, to spread the synoptic agriculture in
the "novel of nine" and to the four winds, my eternal gratitude. The time for action has come.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface 2
Acknowledgments 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
WHAT IS SYNTROPY 5
PRINCIPLES 6
Principle 1 - Maximize photosynthesis 7
Principle 2 - Natural succession and stratification 15
Principle 3 - Covered Soil and Dense Tillage 34
Principle 4 - Selective weeding and pruning (always remove plants from the previous
succession). 41
Principle 5 - Concentrate energy, generate biomass efficiently. 43
Principle 6 - Ecophysiology of plants and ecophysiological function of plants. 44
Principle 7 - Synchronize plantings. Edges should be pruned. 45
Principle 8 - What every being is doing well. 47
CONCLUSION 48
APPENDIX I INDICATOR SPECIES 49
APPENDIX II ERNST GÖTSCH 51

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WHAT IS SYNTROPY
The great contribution that Ernst Götsch gives us is to have unveiled and systematized the
principles through which nature works. Ernst gives us an ecological literacy - an understanding
of the organizational principles that ecosystems have developed to sustain life, as Fritjof Capra
says - directing the path to sustainability.
Syntropy, unlike entropy, goes from the simple to the complex. Tables 1 and 2, taken from Fritjof
Capra's book “The Web of Life”, give us an accurate idea of ​the capacity of life on the planet to
maintain the macro-organism Earth’s stability, carrying out functions to maintain its own
equilibrium - a process known in animal physiology as homeostasis. Since the emergence of life
3.5 billion years ago and through syntropy, life has been compounding the Sun’s energy into
dramatically different life forms, transforming and storing it, thus forming a complex living
network. Though human beings have caused disturbances all over the planet for millenia,
wherever we have not exceeded the acceptable limits of disturbance this living network has
reestablished its connections, life has returned to flourish, like the regeneration of a small cut in
our skin. However, where we have surpassed this capacity for regeneration, it is as if we had
amputated a limb, nature itself did not succeed in this time scale to return to the previous
stability, and in this way whole civilizations disappeared and enormous deserts appeared. By
understanding how life on the planet is governed by syntropic principles, we can return life to
degraded areas and turn deserts into forests again.
The principles proposed by Ernst Götsch are put here in a sequence only to facilitate reading, but
they are not placed in a hierarchy of importance. All are fundamental and must always occur at
the same time, for agroforests to succeed. The best description would be that of a network - all
elements are interconnected. When we implant an agroforest, the absence of any single principle
weakens the entire network, acting as a hole through which energy that could be stored in the
system instead is lost, causing complications. This becomes reflected in the quality of our
agroforestry, and the emergence of short-cycle herbs, "invasive plants" (from previous succession
systems), absence of strata, aged plants, diseases, insect outbreaks, low production, are only the
symptoms of not completely applying all the principles. For this reason, to understand one
principle we often refer to another, for they are all interconnected, almost as if merged into an
amalgam.

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PRINCIPLES

Principle 1 - Maximize photosynthesis

The greater the photosynthesis, the more vigorous the system. Photosynthesis happens not only
with water coming from the soil; plants drink water from the atmosphere as well. The
maximization of photosynthesis by planting in high density and strata allows the system to
become dark green and cooler. If we really understand photosynthesis to the depth it requires, we
will be able to build the most beautiful and productive agroforests. There is a long-known
equation for photosynthesis:
water + CO2 LIGHT Glucose + O2
Glucose synthesized during photosynthesis is the precursor of the characteristic carbohydrate of
plants: sucrose, starch and cellulose, which cannot be synthesized by animals, with cellulose the
most abundant polysaccharide in nature. Huge amounts of pulp are produced annually by the
plant kingdom, not only in growing forests, but also by crops intended for harvesting. It is
estimated that every day vegetables synthesize 50 kg of cellulose for each human being on the
planet (Lehninger, 1989), which in today's calculations would give 350 billion kg of cellulose
produced per day.
From the glucose produced in photosynthesis, the plants form numerous other sugars such as
maltose, sucrose, fructose, mannose, ribose, arabinose, xylose and others. Carbohydrates are the
"sustenance of life" for many organisms, and account for most of the caloric intake of humans,
most animals, and also, directly or indirectly, of most microorganisms. Carbohydrates also
occupy a central position in the metabolism of green plants and other photosynthetic organisms.
The vast amounts of starch and other carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis are the ultimate
source of energy for animals, plants and microbes. Thus we understand the fundamental
importance of photosynthesis as the primary source of food for most living beings on this planet
and as the basis of our soil fertility. By feeding the community of soil microorganisms with
carbon from photosynthesis, we will be creating a virtuous circle, where more fertility produces
more biomass, more leaves, more chlorophyll, more photosynthesis, more soil food, more life in
the soil, higher fertility, greater balance of biocenosis, and better plant health.
Understanding this virtuous circle brings out the importance of planting in strata, taking full
advantage of all the Sun’s luminous energy and ensuring each stratum always possesses
maximum young biomass. When we connect this with the natural succession of the plants,
accelerated by pruning, we reach the apex of this technology, the natural technology created by
the planet itself - the maximization of photosynthesis.
We are, for example, seeking to maximize photosynthesis in a conventional corn plantation (zea
mays), as in Image 1.

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 Image 1 - Conventional maize planting. Source: http://www.folhadooeste.com.br/cidades/, 04/11/2015.

Today the number of maize plants can reach 90,000 plants/ha. We try to occupy every square
centimeter of the plantation with green leaves to capture sunlight, so as to achieve a higher
production of grains. The peak of this occupation, however, happens only for a short time during
any one-year period, and comes with high costs, as the use of external and biologically
oppressive inputs causes the exclusion of other lifeforms apart from our monoculture. In order to
succeed in building a truly sustainable agriculture that abstains from the use of agrochemicals, all
important principles have to be taking place simultaneously. Otherwise, we may have a high
grain yield but be highly dependent on fossil fuels and the intensive use of pesticides (fungicides,
nematicides, insecticides, herbicides, transgenic plants) and chemical or organic fertilizers, with
their attendant costs - the destruction of springs, streams and rivers, forests and biodiversity, and
an unimaginable loss of fertile soil (sterilization of soil life, compaction, erosion, etc.). These
damages are today not considered by economists within the accounting and final product price,
but merely as externalities of activity.
Maximizing photosynthesis is closely related to:
1 - Planting in high density;
2 - Stratified arrangements; and

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3 - Arrangements rotated according to (driven by) the dynamics of natural succession.
For example, in conventional fruit-growing or recovery of degraded land, a tree is planted every 2
or 3m, leaving many niches (empty spaces) unoccupied. This in turn results in strong pressure
from invasive grasses, and necessitates a lot of maintenance work in the first two years to avoid
suffocation of the planted tree seedlings.
In syntropic agriculture, we seek to occupy every niche in its fullness. That is, we seek to occupy
all of the space in each of the strata not currently occupied by the main crops, and to occupy it
with the largest number of individuals from the most efficient species for each required task.
Plant species with varying strata and life cycles are used, since trees, often planted from seeds,
take time to occupy a spot or provide shade. In the meantime, we use denser planting, followed
later by pruning and thinning, in order to complex the energy that comes from the sun and turn it
more quickly into more life for the system - both above ground (more plants per hectare) and
below ground (more roots and greater formation of litter).
A specific example: Instead of using herbicides to kill the grass between the lines of our fruit
crops such as mango (Mangifera indica), orange (Citrus sp), banana (Musa paradisíaca), and
coffee (Coffea arabica), we plant grass between the lines and cut it with very sharp tools
(mowers), which automatically moves the grass toward the range of trees and feeds the soil life.
By cutting grass with a "razor" as far as possible, the grass undergoes a clean cut and regrows
with much more vigor. This information of vigorous growth is transmitted to our crops and
everything grows faster; we are in the flow of life, and the grass is our NPK factory.
The image below shows us the potential of syntropic agriculture. Coffee plants - naturally
occupying the low stratum - are protected by jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and other trees,
and we have sufficient light for abundant production (see stratification principle).

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 Image 2 - Ernst Götsch's work at the Semente Seed (Brasília-DF).

Conventional or organic agriculture usually works in two dimensions: length and width. In other
words, we tend only to consider the two-dimensional spacing, for planting crops such as soybean
(Glycine max), orange, coffee, sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum), grass, etc. In contrast,
syntropic agriculture works with four dimensions: width, length, height (stratum or floor), and
time. In doing this, we seek to offer each plant a niche that potentiates its photosynthesis and
reduces its stress. We look at each individual and seek to create a bubble of comfort for it
through careful observation: if there is enough ground cover to activate the biological processes
in the soil; the quality of this cover; which stratum the plant belongs to; whether the plant is in
the proper consortium (that is, if the plant is of the low stratum, do we have the other strata above
it? Are the strata above it are by species of the current cycle or the future?) By careful
observation and design, ecological succession helps move it towards systems of abundance. Say,
for example, that we have a manioc (Manihot esculenta) growing under a new eucalyptus
(Eucalyptus sp) which was planted at the same time. From 4 to 6 months the eucalyptus exceeds
the manioc at its height. At this point we do not necessarily have to prune the eucalyptus skirt
completely - instead, we can calibrate the shade by pruning branches that overlap the manioc’s
canopy; branches which are at the same height as the manioc but do not overlap their canopy do
not necessarily have to be removed. In this way, we create for each individual optimal conditions
- a bubble of life - and allow these bubbles to coexist harmoniously, pruning only as necessary.
We must also ensure that there are no aging or sick plants nearby, as these always transmit
senescence information to the system as a whole.
When we tell people that we plant eucalyptus along with grass, greenery, bananas, and fruit...

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many people are frightened, because what comes quickly to mind is Image 3 - eucalyptus planted
in monoculture. The largest fire in Chile's history occurred in 2017, burning over 600,000
hectares of native and planted forests, fields, and entire villages. One of the reasons for the
devastating fire was the large number of forests planted in monoculture, which become
pyrophilic (fire "friends") in the absence of the dynamics generated by managing agroforestry
successions.

Image 3 - Eucalyptus monoculture, susceptible to fire due to being drier than a forest or agroforestry with several strata,
Goiás - Brazil.

Images 4 and 5 present a planting of eucalyptus with slightly richer dynamics in which grass is
cultivated between the lines, but still with no pruning.

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 Image 4 - Eucalyptus plantation in double rows, Goiás - Brazil.

Image 5 - Eucalyptus planting in double rows 20m x (3x2m), Goiás - Brazil.

Image 6 gives us a sense of the principle of maximizing photosynthesis. In the tree line we have
eucalyptus occupying the emergent stratum, citrus and banana occupying the middle stratum - all

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planted very close together - and between the lines, mombasa grass (Panicum maximum)
forming the low stratum. Many questions are asked about eucalyptus, which is known to dry the
soil and cause allelopathy (inhibiting the growth of other plants). However, these defects arise
from eucalyptus monocultures; in the context of syntropic agriculture, the eucalyptus acts as an
ally. Periodically top-cut to a height of 5m, it provides large amounts of biomass, accelerates the
growth of the whole system with its own vigorous regrowth, and provides excellent wood after
15 years. The destopamento of the eucalyptus and mechanized grinding feeds the entire system
(the treelines as well as in between them), and generates a denser and non-warping wood.
Banana is another excellent producer of biomass, which agroforesters say is "so good that it even
produces banana", and here it is also heavily pruned to feed the tree line. The mombasa grass
between the trees is periodically cut, and part of the material is left in the interline to feed the soil
and the grass itself, whilst the remaining is deposited along the lines to feed the trees.

Image 6 - Agroforestry designed by Ernst Götsch at Fazenda Toca, Itirapina - São Paulo.

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 Image 7 - Vigorous growth of the mombaça grass in between lines. SAF developed by Ernst
Gotsch, Fazenda Toca, Itirapina - São Paulo. The grass is pruned several times a year, presenting
vigorous growth. We never let the grass mature and produce seeds, which would slow its growth
and consequently the growth of the whole system (Images 6 and 7).

The fourth dimension is time. Understanding it enables us to plant in high density, since each
plant has a development time characteristic of its own species. We can thus start planting
vegetables in the same space that we plant trees or mombaça grass, for example, since in a few
months the vegetables take their leave and the plants of stage Placenta II (see Principle 2 -
Natural Succession and Stratification) become established, which after two years will dominate
the fast-growing tree system. After a few more years, these trees are then replaced by
longer-living trees, which are also planted at high density and are pruned and thinned over time,
until they reach the final desired spacing or are replaced by other trees. (Placenta I and II →
Secondary I and II → Climax)

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Principle 2 - Natural succession and stratification
The second principle concerns the natural succession of species in our agroforestry. This
principle is closely associated with the stratification of the forest. For more than 40 years Ernst
Götsch has studied forests and their dynamics and has managed to systematize one of the most
important principles, which is stratification. Each individual, when it reaches its adult stage,
reaches a size characteristic of its species. For instance, we call emergent those trees that rise
above the forest canopy, such as the chestnut (Bertholletia excelsa), kapok (Ceiba pentandra),
piquia (Caryocar villosum), and Arara nut tree (Joannesia princeps) in the Amazon Jungle, the
jequitibá (Cariniana legalis) in the Atlantic Forest, the coconut (Cocos nucifera) in the northeast,
and the Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia) and many other species in the south.
Ernst was able to identify 11 strata or stages (Figure 8) which occur in practically all biomes of
Planet Earth, except for regions near the poles. However, for ease of understanding he
summarises the forest dynamics into five strata. Each stratum has a percentage of shade that its
canopy should occupy on its corresponding storey (Image 9).

FIGURE 8 - Eleven strata (floors)

• Emerging
• High-convex
• High-neutral
• High-concave
• Medium-High
• Medium
• Medium-low
• Low-Medium
• Low
• Creeping-low
• Creeping
Not all layers are necessarily always present..

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 Image 9 - Forest stratification and shade percentage of each stratum.

The shade percentage of each stratum allows the light to reach the forest floor, where the
creeping stratum lies. Ernst points out, however, that more important than the appropriate shade
percentage in each stratum is the dynamics we give to this shade. If the tree canopy is aged, there
is no point in each stratum having the correct percentage of shade.
Stratification occurs from the beginning of the agroforestry when we start with vegetables. The
vegetables are the system’s placenta, and protect and create our embryo: the forest of the future.

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The chart below, prepared by Ernst Götsch, shows the evolution of agroforestry via natural
succession. Each color indicates a phytophysiognomy (the landscape of dominant species; the
skin of the agroforest). In the beginning, we have placenta 1 and 2, and what stands out are
vegetables, tubers, beans, cassava, pineapple, papaya, but within this system are also already
contained the seedlings of future trees from all strata and life cycles. Should we lack the seeds of
some future species (e.g. cacao or jequitibá) at the initial planting and wish to plant them in the
future, then at some point we will need to do a more drastic pruning and make a clearing to
introduce these species from seeds or seedlings.

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The chart above complements the chart on the previous page. It is divided into three parts:
colonisation system; accumulation system; and abundance system. The colored circles on the
previous page repeat dozens of times between each dashed line (each dashed line can last for 200
or 300 years). At each phase change we have a species that requires more fertile soil replacing a
less demanding species.
Colonisation System
Proximity to volcanoes is characteristic of places where life begins. The first life forms such as
fungi, bacteria, algae, mosses, and lichens occur as the lava cools. This also occurs on slopes of
roads, in gullies, and anywhere all the soil has been removed, exposing the subsoil.

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 Ohia, Metrosideros polymorpha, Myrtacea colonising a lava field, 1960 eruption south of Kona, Hawaii.
Accumulation System
When we destroy a primary forest with fire and cultivate the land for several years, the soil
becomes impoverished, we lose carbon, the soil becomes acidic, phosphorus is fixed, and
aluminum becomes bioavailable and toxic to the roots of many plants. At this stage, only plants
of the accumulation system grow - plants with a higher carbon/nitrogen ratio, whose leaves are
more coriaceous (leathery). There are almost no fruits for large mammals, and many degraded
areas are present. If the system has not yet completely lost its resilience, then over many years,
depending on the biome, nature may establish the first plants of the abundance system. This can
happen in 10 years or in 100 or 200 years, depending on the severity of damage that needs
undoing. Today in our country (Brazil) we have thousands of hectares where the ecosystem has
completely lost its resilience. Image 10 shows eagle fern (Pteridium aquilinum) in a location
destroyed by fire many years ago; the land will remain thus for over a hundred years, despite the
seed bank being next in many places nature cannot on its own recreate the original forest
destroyed by humans. Thus, to implant our agroforests in these places we need "courageous"
species - species that can grow in soils with pH 4.3, 1 ppm of phosphorus, and undetectable
micronutrients in soil analyses. We need species that act as bridges to systems of abundance

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again, such as eucalyptus, Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), brachiaria grasses
(Brachiaria spp), century plant (Agave americana), sisal (Agave sisalana), pigeon pea (Cajanus
cajan), pencilflower (Stylosanthes spp), assa-peixe (Vernonia polysphaera), wolf apple (Solanum
lycorcapum), and many other native and exotic species. With these species we can even dispense
with the use of external inputs. We call this the system of accumulation because we are
accumulating the Sun’s energy, complexing it within matter, and increasing the content of
organic matter, which will improve the physical, chemical and biological conditions of the soil,
feeding its biocenosis and allowing the establishment of more demanding plants, thus evolving
into systems of abundance.
TIPS
● Avoid taking steps back in succession, for example planting a type of accumulation plant
in a system of abundance, e.g. planting wolf apple (Accumulation System) on land that
grows mombaça grass very well (Abundance System).
● Remove plants from previous systems, e.g. goat's beard (Cyperus spp) (Growing System
at the beginning) that is growing between mombaça grass (the most advanced
Accumulation System). The goat's beard grass must be removed with its root, because its
growth cycle is much faster (and produces little biomass) than the mombasa, so merely
pruning it will allow it to flower before the mombasa, and transmit this information of
aging throughout the system, hindering the development of plants.

Image 10 - Eagle fern, Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Goiás - Brazil.

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Abundance System
Regardless of the stage of destruction we find a place, be it a desert, a degraded area, an
abandoned poultry, a mining pit, a land of culture, our goal is to bring you into a system of
abundance. We can say that it is our luxury system, we can produce it without the help of
external inputs, produce food in abundance for large mammals like us, because the land is
extremely fertile and balanced. Currently in his farm in Bahia, Ernst is forced to thin papaya
(Carica papaya), yam (Colocasia esculenta), which are born abundantly in the clearings opened
in the old agroforestry, already produced corn and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) with only 5
millimeters of rain , and from his experience he states that agroforests above 500 hectares are
capable of producing an increase in rainfall, influencing all surrounding region. After 30 years
and 800 hectares transformed into forests, 17 streams on his farm, ran again water and became
perennial.
The succession graphs of the species give us an idea of ​how this transition between species
occurs. Along with the transition of species, the soil will improve on all parameters, whether
chemical, physical or biological. IMPORTANT: We started the agroforestry planting all species
of all systems (accumulation and abundance), each system having representatives of each
stratum. However, if we start our agroforestry in a primary forest, we do not need to plant species
from the accumulation system, since we are in a higher level of fertility, we can introduce in this
case for each floor (stratum) species of abundance system, such as: low stratum: cocoa, coffee.
Average Stratum: cupuassu cambuca, citrus, rambutam, mangosteen, achachahiru, abiu, peach,
etc. High stratum: apple, avocado, jackfruit, cherry from Rio Grande, acerola, cajá, etc.
Emergent: Brazil nut, pecan, pear, pequi, etc. We cite the species in relation only to the stratum,
often the mentioned species do not occur in the same biome. When we begin in a system of
accumulation, we can plant the fruit species we want, each in its proper stratum, but we need
external input, that is, how the soil and the environment as a whole are not adequate to receive
these species, we have to help with a "crutch", such as organic fertilizer, limestone,
thermophosphate, rock dust, etc. Unlike conventional or organic farming, in synthetic agriculture
this external help diminishes with time, as we approach the system of abundance, as we are
walking in the flow of nature, where small changes generate great transformations. Thus species
are succeeding in time, as we prune the whole system, we accelerate this succession. As an
example, we started an agroforestry with vegetables (placenta I and II), secondary I, secondary II
and climatic, with representatives in all strata. We pick up arugula, radish, coriander, mustard
after 30 or 40 days, then come the harvest of lettuce, broccoli, eggplant, yacon, baroa, cassava,
pineapple, papaya, the vegetable garden and the trees are established, as the first emergent
emerges the embaúba (secondary I, lives 10 to 20 years), just below it we have the guapuruvu
(secondary II, lives from 30 to 50 years) and down there growing much slower we have the dandá
(Joanesia princeps) - System of Abundance - lives more than 80 years, all three are emerging,
but each presents a different life span. Embaúba and guapuruvu are system of accumulation,

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while the dandy is closer to the system of abundance. When we can embaúba, the guapuruvu
stretches a little more under the influence of several factors: the vigorous regrowth of the
embaúba, which stimulates the other plants to grow as well, the pruning material of the embaúba
manages all around him, the largest entrance of light increases the photosynthesis of the
guapuruvu, if there was no guapuruvu, the embaúba would stay longer, waiting for someone to
occupy its place, the time arrives that the guapuruvu begins to overcome the embaúba, this then
says goodbye, fulfilled its function in the path to the climatic forest, now the guapuruvu occupies
the top of the forest and underneath it grows the dandy, every pruning that occurs in guapuruvu
repeats the cycle, greater entrance of light, induction of growth throughout the system, through
the mycorrhiza and growth hormones, so the dandá is growing and the day arrives that surpasses
the guapuruvu, this one says goodbye, because as emergent it does not tolerate other trees on its
canopy, if there were not the dandy, and guapuruvu would remain in the system until it became
completely old and we would be stuck in a system of accumulation. Thanks to this dynamics of
management, we greatly accelerate the speed of change, the phyto-physiognomy, the face of our
forest. Remember: Syntropic agriculture is disturbance, pruning, necessary to pulse the forest, for
there to be growth, sprouting, growth hormones in profusion, system rejuvenated, young, with
vitality. It is as if we were training a high performance athlete, always worked with its maximum
power, and with an advantage: no doping, all natural. What we explain for these three species of
the emerging stratum is valid for species of all strata. The economic plants of each stratum can
also contribute to pruning, for example, in the cultivation of cacao, according to Ernst, its
pruning can reach 30% of what is pruned in the system. If at the beginning of our agroforestry
we can collect and plant seeds of trees of all strata, at the moment that the dandá begins to
dominate the forest as emergent and we have the complete strata, we can imagine that in the
upper stratum the production of the jaqueira, avocado , cajá mirim, cajá mango, mango, in the
middle stratum we have cupuaçu, rambutam, medlar, citrus, etc., in the lower stratum we have
coffee, cocoa, jabuticaba and as we can have yams, ginger, saffron, taioba etc. In choosing what
to plant we have to take care to avoid bringing plants that do not fit in our place, either because of
the excess cold, the heat, or the amount of rain. For example, in the Amazon, in a study
conducted by Professor Paulo Cavalcante of the Emílio Goeldii Museum, grow more than 150
species of native and exotic fruits. Plants not adapted to the local climate can suffer stress and
never get to produce, or even die, or even be prevented from forming fruits because they do not
tolerate rain at the time of flowering, as in the case of mango. The mango grows well in
practically all biomes in Brazil, but only produces fruits in those that the period of the drought
coincides with its flowering.
With the forest of food and noble woods formed, now where do corn, okra, cereals, tomatoes
come in? Well, at that moment we have a thriving forest that does not fit them anymore, they
need more light, but to make them easier, we take down our agroforest, where we think we can
improve it, where a stratum is missing, or where we want to introduce a that we do not have, and

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at that time we planted our cereals, our tomatoes, our vegetables, now no need to use fertilizer, or
any input, because since we started the soil has improved a lot, now we have a forest soil, higher
pH, available phosphorus rose, aluminum became unavailable, and by the excellent fruit flavor,
the micronutrients returned. And there are more, we will produce vegetables and grains,
conserving the soil, using the minimum water, thanks to the thick mulching, to the deep soil
profile that we created, with the help of millions of microorganisms. And at that moment we
plant our cereals and vegetables, we also plant the fruits we want, the noble woods we want,
along with them we will also have the valuable natural regeneration, which we will manage by
pruning and driving along with the species we plant, respecting the percentage of 95% of the
success of an agroforestry is management, 5% is planting, if we delay or abandon management,
conflicts begin to emerge, such as excessive shading, aging trees, etc. for which nature always
has a solution, but these conflicts are usually resolved on a larger time scale, in the time of
nature. When we manage agroforestry, we accelerate nutrient cycling and set more carbon than
natural primary forests, Steenbock (2013). We sought to adjust the tree strata by pruning,
allowing each tree to have the necessary amount of light or shade, covering with pruning material
the discovered or weak places, placing the trunks in a level curve in places with slopes, aiding the
infiltration of rainfall.
When we begin the implantation of an agroforestry it is important to identify where the area is
located, we can do this by observing the species present, if we have noble woods and long-lived
species, it indicates a better soil quality if we only have white woods and trees of short and
medium life cycle, accumulation system, but important is also to observe the indicator species,
many species give us information about pH and if there are compacted layers in the soil. These
telltale plants, contrary to what many think are not plagues, but valuable tools that nature has to
heal the open wounds most often by the human being himself. Imagine if they did not have them,
who would support a pH of 4.5 in the soil or grow in an extremely dry and thick soil. Often
plants that are deficient in nutrients are hyperaccumulating with their own nutrients. When they
die, they will have created a rich niche of that scarce nutrient, preparing a better place for the
next plants in succession, as is my case (Bacharis coridifolia) . Learn more about indicator plants
in Appendix I.
The Importance of Stratification
Recreating similar productive forests in form and function to the original ecosystems of the
place, involves constructing stratified forests.
In nature each plant is within a context. Walking inside a primary forest in the Amazon, we can
observe, for example, that cupuaçu is not at the top of the forest, there are other trees above it and
there are trees below it, cupuaçu is a medium stratum plant.
If we do the same thing in Central America, we can find an almost white acerola tree at the top of
its forest, although a 3-foot acerola tree is much smaller than a cupuaçu tree at its place of origin,

23
(the forests are much lower than in the Amazon), so what determines the stratum of the plant is
not its height, but the forest from where it originates, its center of origin. Who first studied in
detail the centers of origin of the cultivated plants was the Russian researcher Nikolai Ivanovich
Vavilov (image 11).

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 Figura 11 – Vavilov.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Vavilov traveled for more than twenty years on the five
continents harvesting seeds of agricultural plants such as wild and cultivated corn, potatoes,
grains, fodder, fruits and all kinds of vegetables. At the same time, he collected data on the places
he visited and on the languages ​and cultures of his people. Its collection of seeds came to be the
largest in the world, with approximately 200,000 species that were stored and seeded in more
than 100 experimental stations in the then Soviet Union. In his travels, Vavilov noted that
agricultural biodiversity was unevenly distributed: while in some places plants remained, others
had little or nothing to offer. He also noted that the places with the most agricultural biodiversity
have different topographies, types of soil and climate. It also determined in its time that
agricultural biodiversity came mostly from eight perfectly identifiable nuclei: China (where
soybeans originate), India, Middle East-Central Asia, Southeast Asia, mountainous regions of
Ethiopia, Mexico, and Central America cradle of the corn), the central Andes (from where it
comes to the potato) and the Mediterranean. Even today, these geographical areas are known as
Vavilov centers, real refuges for biodiversity, essential for human consumption (figure 12).
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov.

25
 Figure 12 - Main Centers of Origin of Plants Cultivated in the original Vavilov study.

Brazil is the center of origin of many cultivated plants, among them pineapple. What is the
stratum of pineapple? Looking at a conventional planting of pineapples we might think that it is
from the upper stratum or emergent because it is planted in monoculture alone. But how does
pineapple occur in wild nature? In the Brazilian Cerrado we have a species of pineapple that
naturally thrives - Ananas ananassoides, very similar to the pineapple we grow - Ananas
comosus. If we go inside the National Park of the Chapada dos Veadeiros, a protected area of
240 thousand hectares in the heart of Brazil, interior of Goiás, we can find several populations of
pineapple naturally vegetating. When we come across one of these populations, we can clearly
see that pineapple is a plant of the low stratum, according to the following images.

Figure 13 - Natural population of pineapples fruiting under the canopy of trees.

26
Figure 14 - Natural populations of pineapple in the interior of the National Park Chapada dos Veadeiros

Figure 15 - Pineapple plant native to full sun - Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park.

Figure 16 - Pineapple native to full sun, Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Goiás.

27
What is the difference between the pineapples of images 13 and 14 for the pineapples of images 15 and
16? The pineapples of images 13 and 14 occur a few meters from the plants of images 15 and 16. There is
a noticeable difference when we are in the field: the pineapples of images 13 and 14 are protected by the
tree canopy, while the plants of images 15 and 16 are in full sun. In this population all the plants that we
find in the full sun, about 5 plants, were stunted (with little growth) and with the oldest leaves dried, while
the plants under the forest (hundreds of them) were much larger and with a bright green on the leaves
(Image 17).

Figure 17 - Pineapple plants under the canopy of riparian forest.

Images from 18 to 20 were obtained by placing the objective of the camera pointing at the sky, from the
eye of the most vigorous pineapples and with fruits, that is, what the pineapple plants "see" when they
look at the sky .

Figure 18 - View of the sky from the point of view of pineapples.

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 Figure 198 - View of the sky from the point of view of pineapples.

Figure 20 - View of the sky from the point of view of pineapples.

Observing the great vitality of the plants under the forest with those in the full Sun, there is no
doubt that the pineapple is a low stratum plant. The populations of pineapples followed precisely
the riparian forest of the creek. When we respect the ecophysiology of plants, we prevent them
from entering into stress. Stress is one of the triggers that trigger diseases, insect attacks,
influencing fruit quality, we often buy a pineapple in the market with the bark still very green, but
when we open it we see that its pulp is already glazed, medium transparent, the fruit although
green is past, the excessive heat of the Sun has matured it forcibly. Just as a Dutch cow (native to
the cold climate of Europe) goes into stress when the ambient temperature rises above 16 ° C,
causing frequent mastitis, mycoses of helmet, etc. , a simple pineapple fruit can also "stress" if
we do not provide the ideal conditions in which it has evolved for thousands of years. If we
create adequate conditions for our cultivated plants to manifest their full productive potential,

29
with no need to force production with chemical fertilizers, hormones and pesticides, we will be
able to create beautiful, highly productive fields of crops, and 22.

Figure 20 - Citrus orchard shaded by breadfruit, Alto Beni, Bolivia (2001).

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Figure 21 - Agroforestry with citrus, banana, coffee, cocoa and dozens of native and exotic trees in between lines, guided
by Ernst Gotsch. Owned by Joaquin Milz, Alto Beni, Bolivía.

If the big fruit companies understand that, if the big grain producers make small changes in their
fields, and the machine companies offer machines adapted to work with the trees, it will be
possible to completely abandon the use of agrochemicals. Ernst Götsch has been working with
some major producers and the results are impressive. At the Toca farm, organic orchards of
orange with greening infection, which received 57 sprays annually allowed in organic
agriculture, with the adoption of syntrophic agriculture, were no longer sprayed and there was a
reduction of greening. This result was obtained by removing the heavy tractors, planting the
mombaça in between the lines and in the lines of citrus was planted cassava, banana, eucalyptus
and native trees. Why did the introduction of a few species in this field of citrus and the
withdrawal of heavy machinery bring about all this change? Because we have changed the
paradigm of production. Before the grass in the interline was a pest to be eliminated, in
conventional fields we use herbicide, in the organic agriculture trowel and even electric shock. In
syntropical agriculture we treat grass as our NPK plant, we cut with sharp mowers for rapid
re-sprouting and transmit this vigorous growth information to every system, pruned trees
(eucalyptus, banana and others) are crushed and the scattered wood in the fields , producing
humus more stable in the soil (originated from cellulose and lignin), the regrowth of the trees
stimulates all around them to grow as well. At peak summer the citrus has the shadow of the
eucalyptus and in winter the sun to warm it, small changes, great transformations. After the story
of the pineapple, I wonder how useful it would be if one of these big TV networks working with
nature could produce a series of films showing what the natural ecosystems were like from where
our cultivated plants came, with all the technology of today we could produce very educational
films.
Distribution in the occupation of the different strata
Here we perceive the mistakes that many agroforestry make in many places, including many
times as a technological package by government agencies, where they argue that agroforestry is
very good, ecologically very good, solve many problems, recover soils, improve soils, but to feed
mankind we must use the principles of the Green Revolution (pesticides and chemical fertilizers).
According to what is being focused on, depending on the main economic culture, an
occupation is observed as follows: 1 - Strong weight in the high and emergent strata in
situations of accumulation (accumulation systems), when we want to focus on
accumulation, for for example, a plantation targeting only timber. Examples: modern
plantations of eucalyptus or pinus. And these modern monoculture plantations are not
intelligent, because we could produce 30 to 50 percent more wood and of better quality if
we planted pine and eucalyptus together, if we planted mahogany and eucalyptus together,
we would produce much more because we have eucalyptus as an emerging one produce a
straight and much longer shaft and mahogany as a high stratum, which is below the

31
eucalyptus, so we could move towards optimization of the crops, to the optimum point. We
need to understand this, because when Ernst speaks of an emerging stratum occupying 15
to 25%, it is not any forest that has this, a forest when it is at the peak of large animal feed
production, then, at that moment it has that percentage (15 to 25% of emergent shade) and
we have the possibility of trying to make our plantations reach this percentage, just look at
the plantations of Ernst Gotsch em sua fazenda na Bahia, lá podemos identificar todos os
strata - emerging, high, medium, low, well clearly. In the beginning when we began to plant,
we planted the strata in much greater density than they appear in a mature, climax forest.
For example, Ernst has been developing models where plant 2220 eucalyptus per hectare,
and this is one of the secrets, the emergent ones we can not, but we thin, and the upper and
middle strata we can when we have the low stratum as production focus (example of lows:
cocoa and coffee), or if we had avocado and litchi (high and medium) , they would be part
of the production focus, but also provide much of the organic matter that the field
produces, so the emerging ones we will thin in the course of time.
2 - Natural - also for medium-late phase in almost all forests in their climactic phase in
humid and subhumid climates, more pronounced at altitudes outside the tropics, on the
counterface. When the occupation of the strata occurs naturally without human
intervention, the forest reaches a point where the middle and lower strata disappear,
jabuticaba no longer produces, cocoa leaves, orange trees take their leave, jaqueira leaves,
even in the natural place of these fruit trees, that is, in the inspiration, in the system of
accumulation, the forest becomes empty in the lower strata (more medium and low), we
still have chestnut producing (emergent), the forest still supports large animals, but we have
no more an abundant production of fruits. We will only have abundant production when
we have a disturbance (opening of clearings, for example), the disturbance is productive, it
is a precondition, and at the same time it increases photosynthesis, the disturbance is not a
loss, the passage of hurricanes in America Central, is a blessing, as it increases cocoa
production in the following year. The disturbances here are quite different from the
anthropic technomorphic disturbances we cause to all the biomes of the planet, a real
unnatural devastation, because it does not consider the principles of the system itself.
3 - In places and situations that due to their ecophysiological preconditions would be
subject to periodic disturbances, but not due to lack of presence of the causative vector
(wind, storms, large animals etc), or in the case of inadequately designed agroecosystems.
managed (lack of pruning). So these systems become eternal, lifeless systems of
accumulation.
At the other extreme we have systems, by their nature, extreme systems of abundance,
which show at their peak the following distribution:
Stratum Average

32
15 - 25% area shaded by emergent 20%
30 - 40% shaded area by high 35%
50 - 60% shaded area by medium 55%
80 - 90% shaded area by low 85%
10 - 20% of area shaded by creepers and new regeneration 15%
Summing up we have 210%

To reach these 210%, forests know many means and use numerous strategies. It is up to us
to choose the most suitable and efficient in the management of our agroecosystems. Note
also that there are ways to regulate the shade provided by the plants that make up the
strata of the emergent, high and medium species that are natural to the species itself, that
is, their quality of being deciduous or not. As the deciduous species, observe more or less at
what time of year and how long, that tree is without leaves, because being without leaves
offers little shade for the vegetation below them. Extreme example: the cashew tree in the
semi-arid is almost stripped of leaves, from a moment the rains allow the growth of
vegetation under him, in his ecosystem we can thus shade much more the areas that he
inhabits, taking care not to exceed 30 to 40 % shade (cashew is high stratum). The same
corresponds to species such as Ceiba pentandra, jaracatiá, cajá, etc. which remain for a
long time and at the critical moment, without leaves, which generates the stimulus (the
floral induction) for the fruiting of the plants under them.

33
Principle 3 - Covered Soil and Dense Tillage
Real value of soil
Why is soil more precious than oil? Why we can (and have done for thousands of years) live without oil,
but we can not live without arable soils, especially with population growth and with the oceans almost
empty. Solo is a sensitive material that needs care. The soil is not a factory, a deposit for toxic substances,
nor a support for our crops; the ground is not dirty, not a large paved road or a parking lot for cars.
Agricultural soils are rare. Forty per cent of the Earth's soils are degraded, so every teaspoonful of fertile
soils is precious - crucial to human life, food, safety, essential to environmental services, reducing poverty,
creating sustainable development. The soil feeds us and we are responsible for it. If it is not protected by
vegetation, it is swept by the winds or washed by the rains.
Canadian researcher, doctor in solos, Celine Caron.
http://www.mofga.org/Publications/MaineOrganicFarmerGardener/Spring2015/AgriculturalSoil/tabid/2937/Default.aspx

One of the fundamental principles that Ernst Götsch works is the soil cover, only it will return fertility to
the soil again, and this can be well observed in his farm in Piraí do Norte, BA. Since the implantation and
throughout the management of the agroforestry, Ernst always observes where the places with little
mulching are and places in these places a lot of pruning material. Ernst has been working extensively with
Mombasa grass in between the lines of perennial crops. The mombaça grass is low stratum and of the
same genus of the colonization, being demanding in soil fertility. When we start a field we always have to
keep in mind which species would be best to cover the soil quickly, we do not have a recipe, we must
observe the soil fertility, the climate, the stratum of the chosen plant, etc., for example, low fertility we
can opt for less demanding plants, such as bracharya, andropogon, or other grasses, remembering that the
brachiaria cycle is shorter than the mombaça, because every time the grass blooms we must to avoid
senescence information, negatively influencing and slowing the growth of the crops that are consorted
with it. The brachiaria decumbens and brisantha because they are decumbent (spreading more to the
sides), end up entering the lines of the crops, making difficult the handling, unlike the mombaça that has a
cespitoso growth. In poorer places we can change the mombaça by the andropogon that also has a
cespitoso habit. So that we do not get stuck in recipes we have to know the ecophysiological function of
each plant, so we always choose the best plant for each situation, because if we work with recipes and not
principles, when we come across some place where this recipe does not fit , for example, a place where
Mombasa does not grow due to the weak soil, we will not know what to do. Working with principles, it
would be like a cook who understands the function of each ingredient in the recipe, in the lack of one
ingredient he can substitute for another knowing the function of that absent ingredient. In very dry places
like the caatinga species are searched that grow well in environments with little rain, such as forage palm,
sisal, purple pinhão. The more we know where we are and the plants adapted to this place, we will have
more possibilities of consortia. In the settlement of the Contestado in Paraná, the settlers are using vetch
as winter crop on the mombaça grass, due to the frosts, which the grass does not support, thus still can
produce biomass even in winter (Messerschmidt, personal communication). In the Sítio Semente, in
Brasilia - DF, has been used with great success, shredded wood obtained from the streets of the city. The
trees of the squares and streets are pruned and in the proper place crushed by an implement coupled to the
tractor. In the year 2016, Ernst Götsch consulted in Martinique for a producer who exports fruit to Europe.
In April 2017 this producer sent some images of the changes made, recommended by Ernst. The vitality

34
that the fields transmit (images 22 and 23), well covered with Mombasa grass in between the lines, which
is scraped and placed on the banana lines and trees, trees are pruned annually and crushed, feeding the
streets of grass, with this example we can see the several principles acting at the same time: maximization
of photosynthesis, stratification, soil covered, planting densified, etc.

Figure 22 - Martinique, plantation oriented by Ernst Gotsch. Home 2016, image: April, 2017.

Figure 23 - Martinique, plantation oriented by Ernst Gotsch. Home 2016, image: April, 2017.

35
We present below the results of researches by Professor Gilles Limieux of the University of Laval, Canada
(apud Agroecologia Hoje, n. 15, 7/8, 2002), which evaluated the results of applying wood chips to the
soil.
After analyzing the by-product of conifers cuttings with respect to their nutrient content, this material was
applied experimentally in agricultural soils, based on 150 to 200 m3 / ha. This fertilization gave good
results in the productivity of potatoes, fruit trees and strawberries. The results, however, were even better
when using AMRF (fragmented rameal wood chips) - hard wood, particularly oak (Quercus rubor).

Effects of the application of AMRF (Fragmented Ramosal Wood Shavings) on the soil
After the application of AMRF (fragmented rameal wood chips), the following soil modifications were
observed:
● After 3 months, most of the chips had already been metabolized by soil biology;
● The color of horizon A became darker, approaching a very dark brown;
● Organic matter content increased by 3% in only 12 months;
● Soil pH increased at the rate of 0.5, in most soils tested;
● Available phosphorus and exchangeable magnesium contents showed a significant increase.

Effects of the application of AMRF (fragmented rameal wood chips) on crops

a) In temperate climate it was observed that:
● Potato tubers with increased dry matter content by 30% and obtaining higher levels of
phosphorus, potassium and magnesium;
● Wheat and oats had an increase in the weight of 1000 grains and in the number of grains
per spike of the order of 30%;
● The nutrient content of the straw decreased with the application of AMRF, showing clear
stimulus to the physiological processes of fruiting;
● Strawberries: 300% increase in fruits harvested;
● Increased resistance to aphids;
● 50% reduction of the need for additional water (irrigation);
● Significant increase in resistance to frost;
● More pronounced fruit flavor.

b) In subtropical climate it was observed:

● In tomato, an increase in productivity and quality that varied between 900 and 1000%;
● The need for additional irrigation has dropped by 50%.
c) In tropical climate it was observed:
● In corn, a huge productivity jump was observed, increasing from 1 to 4 tons / ha by the

36
 application of AMRF (fragmented rameal wood chips) from Acacia auriculiformes,
Tectona grandis, Gliricidia sepium, Senna siamea, Azadirachta indica.
Why rameal and not trunk wood (sawing and sawing)?
The branches and branches, at first with a diameter of 7 cm or less, form young wood with the
following qualities:
- High proportion of bark;
- High content of soluble polyphenols (shorter chain);
- Source of fundamental organic matter for soil aggregation;
- Precursors of a highly reactive humus;
- They concentrate 70% of the nutrients of the tree;
- The C / N ratio is in the range of 30: 1 and 170: 1, the trunk is in the 400: 1 to 750: 1 range.
It is worth mentioning that in tropical climate as in Brazil the processes of growth and
decomposition are quite accelerated, when compared with the temperate climate. For example,
farmers from the Mario Lago settlement, Ribeirão Preto - SP, where one of Ernst 's students,
Namastê Messerchmidt, began the implantation of agroforests, they report that in the lines of the
vegetable beds where they put thick trunks, the soil with the time becomes darker than in the
flower beds, where they cover with grass or AMRF (fragmented wood chips).
Why lúzine-derived humus?
Several natural ecosystems are powerful soil humidifiers. Several soils are born marked by the
abundance of humus, among them, soils with marked natural fertility.
It is important to note that humus formed under forests proves to be, as a rule, more stable and
durable than that formed by grass vegetation. Also humus formed by organic fertilization, with
manures, compost, green manures and management of the forest, does not reach the degree of
durability of that of arboreal origin.
Size of chips or fragments
In general, the size of the chips is dictated by the time provided for the decomposition and
transformation of rameal wood into active humus in the soil, in a given climate.
- In colder or drier climates, possibly mountaineering, temperate or semi-arid, smaller shavings
(from 2 to 4cm) offer a larger contact surface of the wood with the processing agents.
- In hot and humid climate, in the tropics and subtropics, these agents invade the wood quickly,
reducing the need to chop the wood in small trimmings. It is necessary to chop the wood in
mechanized agroforestry systems, to avoid jamming of the machines. In smaller-scale,
non-mechanized agroforestry systems, the fragments may be 10 to 40 cm in length.

37
The application of AMRF (fragmented rameal wood chips) is old in agroforestry systems.
Whenever there is a pruning of the system, there will be an AMRF input to the ground. In this
sense, more drastic prunings not only provide more light but also give back to the soil the
biological dynamics lost with deforestation, creating the foundations for a lasting fertility and
able to generate abundant harvests. Experience has shown that the fertilization with wood
generates abundant fruit. In the years 2000 and 2001, Ernst Götsch performed a series of
experiments at his farm in Bahia, testing several tree densities per m2, which impresses the
vitality of the crops after one year of planting. Ernst knocked down aged corns and planted along
with pineapple, trees at varying densities: ranging from 1 tree per m2 to 15 trees per m2. The
experiments were rigorously inspected, the ones with the best results were those with 15 tree
species per m2. Image 24 is from an experimental field planted in the year 2000 and image 25,
the same field the following year. The pineapples grew a lot, producing fruits of 1.5 kg, an adult
man, crouching passed beneath the leaves.

Figure 24 - Deforested capoeira, planted with pineapple lines and tree seeds in various densities, Fazenda Olhos d'água,
owned by Ernst Götsch, Piraí do Norte, BA.

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Figure 25 - Same location of image 23, after one year of planting, Fazenda Olhos d'água, property of Ernst Götsch, Piraí
do Norte, BA.

Perhaps this is one of the most difficult principles to explain, because when we speak of planting
in high density, we can understand when we grow corn in monoculture, up to 90,000 plants per
ha, or when we plant soybeans, wheat, we are planting thousands of plants per hectare, we are in
the case of corn or other grains, increasing plant density takes into account factors such as soil
fertility, availability of water, etc. If we increase above this limit the plants may even grow, but
we will have a lower fruiting, yield per hectare. But when we think of a system that can have 40
to 80 species of plants per ha, the parameters of traditional agronomic science do not help us
much, we need other criteria. Ernst developed criteria to evaluate the sustainability of a synoptic
plantation (See Appendix II). If we want to have a cocoa plantation at 5x5m spacing, we have to
plant 100 feet of cocoa in this space, if we want to have a jackack every 10x10m, we have to
plant 100 jacks in that space, for some species we have to plant 10 times more, another 100 times
more, or 200 times more. Because ?
When we begin, for example, in a fallen soil, mistreated by generations, we have to plant the
species that can grow in this soil, very close, as an illustration, see the case below. We are
carrying out syntropical plantings on a farm more than 100 years old, located in Chapada dos
Veadeiros, interior of Goiás, Brazil. In many areas of this land, the soil is exposed, no plant can

39
occupy the place, for almost a hundred years an excessive exploitation by the cattle has
exhausted the soil, we are using the minimum of inputs and species that manage to occupy the
place, for example , piteira, daisy, wolf fruit, assa fish. The cigarette holder we planted in the
weakest places every 20 cm. Anyone who has ever seen an adult cigar holder in a cultured land
knows that at least the plant has a circle with a diameter of up to 3m. We plant every 20cm, so
that we can with the growth of the cigar holder, go pruning its leaves and covering the whole soil,
as the plants grow, this area becomes small, we will then thinning the cigar holders. This thinning
is fundamental, because it is the one that feeds the soil, turns mulch, which turns to humus, we
can repeat this process by planting trees in high density, as they grow and tensions begin to arise,
we can select among the best plants and prune the others, building fertility as the system
progresses. For example, in a plantation in Casimiro de Abreu, RJ (Atlantic Forest), Ernst
planted as medium stratum cupuaçu (native to the Amazon, but growing very well in the Atlantic
forest) and cambuca (myrtaceae of the middle stratum). Cupuaçu begins to produce at 6 or 7
years, but the much slower cambuca of growth reaches the middle layer and begins to produce
with only 15 years. As both trees are from the same stratum and are close, tensions begin to
emerge between them, space has become small. At the age of 15, cupuaçu has already produced
many fruit crops, but at the moment we are facing a positive dilemma: do I keep the cupuaçus
and cut the cambuc? or do I give preference to the cambucs and short the cupuaçus? As Ernst
says, we have to choose between Nirvana, Paradise or the Land of the eternally happy!
Remember the 4 dimensions that the agriculture works? The fourth dimension is time and it is
closely associated with high density planting. Thanks to the high density planting and
agroforestry management with the thinning and pruning we drive the plants until the adult stage
to a spacing that reproduces the appropriate shading for each stratum.

Principle 4 - Selective weeding and pruning (always remove plants

from the previous succession).
Whenever we start the maintenance of an agroforestry it is recommended to first make the
selective weeding. Selective weeding is a term created by Ernst, which means to remove from the
system those plants that are from previous systems of succession, for example, when we plant
Mombasa and in the middle of it is born bearded goat grass, when performing the Mombasa cut
we must remove, if possible with the root, the goat's beard, because this is a system of
accumulation well before the Mombasa, and that also has a very precocious flowering. Every
time that the bearded goat's grass blooms is indicating a maturation of the system and thus
slowing down the development of the mombaça, it's the same when the evil mega flourishes, the
black bite, the burdock grass, the advance, and many others grasses and short cycle herbs that are
abundant in accumulation systems. These herbs have the important role of covering the soil,
concentrating scarce nutrients, preparing the environment for the plants of the future, etc. As the

40
system progresses and soil improves, more efficient, biomass-producing, and carbon /
nitrogen-closer plants begin to emerge, our role is then to accelerate natural succession by
removing plants from previous systems and creating better opportunities for emergence of the
plants of the future, so we take off the black bite and use it to protect a panda, or mombaça. In
order to understand better, let's imagine a field of heap (Imperata sp). We started this field
without inputs, we concentrated the cane planted on islands, in these islands we planted trees of
more advanced accumulation systems, such as lobeira, fish, monkfish, angico. locality or in the
Cerrado biome) in places with a slightly better soil weed cassava. When the canopy of these
islands decomposes, it feeds on the soil, it can appear naturally in these local bushes of
Brachiaria Brisantha, in many places the sprout, next to the islands there will always be a fertility
gradient, and the plants that appear show this gradient, are the indicator plants. The emergence,
for example, of systems of accumulation systems such as donkey's tail grass, foxtail grass,
indicates that the soil is still acid in these places (see appendix - indicator plants). As the trees
grow and are pruned, we introduce better quality materials for humus formation, acidity
decreases, bellygrouse (Portulaca oleraceae) appears, a plant indicative of better soil fertility, tree
pruning and improved soil fertility, we introduced plants such as passion fruit, fruit, cassava and
all other cultivated plants that we are interested in establishing in this place, along with native
trees such as fruit trees and noble woods. The construction of the above agroforestry was carried
out without introduction of any external input, other than manioc seeds and manioc. In this same
field, if we want to start from a more advanced stage of the succession, with more demanding
plants, we will have to use crutches, such as organic manure (manure, compost, castor bean pie,
etc.), thermophosphate, rock dust, limestone. This application of inputs must be careful and as
homogeneous as possible, because we will create an artificial condition of fertility, introducing
plants that demand a fertility that of course did not exist in that field. This is how we destroyed
practically all of the Brazilian cerrado: we improved soybean cultivars, corrected the acidity of
the fields with limestone and increased fertility with NPK, with these simplistic measures, we
destroyed the soils by erosion and compaction, we reduced the rains, we littered thousands of
streams and rivers, and we destroy the most biodiverse savannah on the planet.
With this correction of the soil, we planted corn, fruit, vegetables, trees of noble wood, banana,
etc. A good indicator if we are heading for the abundance system is the natural emergence of
indicator plants. For example the field is covered with guanxuma (Sida sp), which indicates that
we did not do a good decompression of the soil, or appears a lot of brave peanut, molybdenum
deficiency. We plant mumbaça, but the brachiaria appears in many spots. Artificially pushing can
be done, but it requires careful attention and a lot of observation, otherwise we put inputs that are
not used, and the field insists on staying in previous stages of succession, thus observing all
bottlenecks like nutritional deficiencies, physical aspects of Soil (compaction, soil type (sandy,
clayey, mixed) and biological: who will be the most efficient producers of biomass, since the
manures and added compounds do not form stable humus and soon will be consumed by soil

41
biology, will be discovered and will be washed away by the rain, retreating in its fertility and
being again occupied by the black, brachiaria, marmalade grass, cage fetus, goat's beard etc.
Evaluated all these factors and carefully choose the species and the inputs, When we can create a
stable and homogeneous fertility for the soil, ectada with the planting of the correct species, there
is no space for the appearance of plants of previous stages of the succession, because our plants
are with the maximum vigor, occupying correctly and quickly their strata, we are "flying low".
One of the fundamental principles for the growth and fruiting of our agroforestry is the pruning,
they are the driving force behind agroforests, as Ernst says, the cat's leap. When Ernst began
work in Brazil, he received a completely devastated land, named after the Fugidos Fazenda da
Terra seca. It was later discovered that the original name of the place was Fazenda Olhos d'água.
So he planted thousands of seeds in high density, and when he was thinning, pruning, he
discovered the great input of energy that came with pruning, as if it were a rejuvenation of the
system, or as Renate said, a reprimavising. Nowadays, several researchers have been discovering
the great subterranean network formed by roots and thousands of microorganisms that keep the
trees connected, so the nutrients, carbon, hormones, are translocated from one plant to another,
causing every system to resonate through of positive feedback loops. There are some basic tips
that Ernst gives us to guide us in the art of pruning. Whenever we are pruning an agroforest,
preferably start from top to bottom, so that we can lessen the damage of the fall of larger
branches, which are cushioned by the lower branches, which could not be there if we could from
bottom to top. First prune diseased, poorly shaped, crooked and overlapping branches. We can
drastically prune trees that resist this management, prune in the bone, as they say, leaving only
the main trunk, or prune keeping the architecture of the canopy, it all depends on the context, the
neighborhood, the goal of pruning. The shadow percentages in each stratum are not stony
clauses, we can increase the shading on one floor if we decrease in the anterior or posterior and
vice versa. Generally systems that support large mammals, like us, have a large investment of
trees in the medium and low strata. Already systems of accumulation have an increase of the
high stratum. But one thing is certain, we will only really understand these principles when we
plant and manage our own agroforestry, only practicing will we gain confidence and wisdom.

Principle 5 - Concentrate energy, generate biomass efficiently.

Concentrating energy means agglutinating resources in lines or islands, since we often work on
fallen soils, impoverished by agromineration, we agglutinate the grasses, the herbs, in lines or
islands and we plant in those places our crops, that can receive the luxury of some input, such as
dung, rock dust, etc., to help them grow in these places. Brachiaria is considered by many people
as a bad, aggressive, invasive plant that is difficult to control, but understanding how nature
works, we use this great Brachiaria force to work in our favor, we stroke 1m wide lines and we
affamos, then we brush 5 , 10 or 15m on each side and accumulate in this line, planting what we
want in the middle of the line, with this cover, no weeds will grow and our cultivation will be

42
better fertilized and protected from dryness. If it is in the summer, 30 or 40 days later we will
again have the brachiaria grown between the lines and so we will successively dominate the field
with the strength of the brachiaria itself, in lines or islands (figure 26).

Figure 26 - Concentrating resources in rows: grass grazed and accumulated in the planting line.

Currently Ernst has been applying this principle a lot with the use of Mombasa grass in the
middle of the trees. The mombaça grass, because it has the characteristic of being of the stratum
low and cespitoso, growing upwards, not being decumbent like the braquiária brisantha,
facilitates the handling, because it does not invade so much the lines of trees.
Preferably build the lines in the north south, observing the topography, relief, plants that like
more sun, the afternoon sun, the morning sun. The proposal determines the design. Plants that
grow fast, see who sucks who. Everything is resource, everything is fertilizer. Resource to follow
the flow of nature to potentiate life processes.

Principle 6 - Ecophysiology of plants and ecophysiological function of

plants.
Plant Ecology studies the adaptation of the physiology of the organisms to the environmental
conditions, for example, in relation to native plants of the caatinga, three mechanisms were
observed regarding the adaptation to drought: the resistance of the species that remain leafy in
the dry period, as the juazeiro (Zizyphus joazeiro Mart.); the tolerance of deciduous species that
lose leaves during the dry season, such as umbuzeiro (Spondias tuberosa Arr.Cam) and the
escape of annual plants that complete the phenological cycle during the rainy season, such as
Brachiaria plantaginea Hitchc., commonly known as million (Araújo Filho & Carvalho, 1997).

43
Many species of the caatinga exert a strict control of transpiration, mainly due to the closing
speed of their stomata as a reaction to the increase of the vapor deficit of the atmosphere even
under favorable conditions of soil moisture (Ecophysiology of plants of the caatinga) José
Moacir Pinheiro Lima Filho, XXVII Northeastern Meeting of Botany, 2004). The above
definition makes clear the importance of the right choice of the species that will compose our
planting, since they need to have the necessary instruments to resist various factors of the locality
where they grow, such as low soil fertility, compaction, prolonged soil discharging, or dry
prolonged, low temperatures or high temperatures, insolation. Hence the importance of Vavilov's
work. We need to find out the source context of the plants we are using, to reproduce this context
and to reduce plant stress. Knowing deeply the plants we work with can shape our plantations
and thus get rid of the ready recipes. It is not enough to know only the plants of our biome,
because of the accelerated process of destruction of all the biomes of Brazil and the world, which
contributed to global warming and climate change, what we are witnessing is the profound
change of the climate in each biome. Vast regions of the Amazon are savannising, in large areas
of the cerrado, in the last 4 years (2014 to 2017), it rained half of the historical average,
remembering the caatinga. In many degraded areas of the Atlantic Forest, cerrado plants grow.
What this shows us is that to recover these areas we will need plants from the cerrado to recover
the Amazon, from plants of the caatinga to recover the cerrado (which is more difficult, because
the soils of the caatinga have in general a fertility far greater than the Cerrado soils). That is, the
conditions created with the destruction of biomes, in many cases do not allow the local species to
colonize that area again, the ecosystem has lost its resilience, urgently requiring our intervention,
but these species may not be enough either, we need then of exotic species from other parts of
the world, such as eucalyptus, Acacia mangium etc. These species are not pests, or destroyers of
springs and soils, actually used in the context of the sintrópica agriculture, are saviors of the
mother country, since the eucalyptus can create our peroba, our cedar, jabuticaba, orange or
mangaba, whatever, since it is used dynamically, as we have seen in previous principles. For
example, in Australia, in the Melbourne region, eucalyptus is native vegetation that protects
springs (Primavesi, personal communication). These species are bridges to the establishment of
highly biodiverse and productive primary forests (Ernst Götsch - RJ, 2016). Knowing the
ecophysiology of plants we can transform them into a tool, so we introduce plants with a
necessary ecophysiological function at that moment, for example, we introduce plants that resist
drought with the function of resisting drought in that degraded environment and in this way
create moisture for the plants of the future, we introduce plants that grow on poor soils, which
provide phosphorus, with the function of creating the fertility of the future.

Principle 7 - Synchronize plantings. Edges should be pruned.

Established crops, the transition to syntopian agriculture. Often when we opt for the syntropical

44
agriculture, we already have on the farm areas with perennial crops installed, either organic or
conventional, with the application of chemical or organic fertilizers, agrochemicals or grouts, and
often with heavy machinery, in short every technological package of agriculture industrial. When
Ernst started the work of Toca Farm, in São Paulo, this was a farm that produced organic fruits.
Ernst received one of the areas with organic management and with citrus already planted at 2
years of age. After the syntrophic management, spray spraying was abandoned and lighter
machines were used to reduce compaction of the soil and to avoid the death of the grass by the
rotation of the machines. When we choose to work with what is already planted, it is necessary
to evaluate how we can apply all the principles in that place, whether it is feasible to keep the
previous crop or not. For example, if we have a plantation of rubber trees already in production,
the first step is to identify which stratum that crop belongs to, after this step we evaluate if it is
possible to introduce the other strata. In the case of this adult planting of rubber tree it is
necessary to perform a drastic pruning, since it would be impracticable for the introduced plants
to grow under a shade of adult plants, aged and with a percentage of shade far superior to that of
the high stratum, since they were planted in monoculture. The rubber tree is good for pruning
and regrowth vigorously, all pruned material will serve as fertilizer for the other strata that we are
introducing, for example, after the pruning of the rubber tree, we can introduce as low stratum by
seedlings, coffee, cocoa, jabuticaba, medium stratum - banana silver (grows well under the shade
of the high stratum), citrus, achachairu, rambutan, etc., remembering that the rubber tree was
planted in monoculture and the high stratum in the syntropical agriculture occupies only 40% of
the shade of its floor, we have an emerging stratum, we can raise this shading to 50-55%, because
we do not have emergent strata (20% shade), it is not necessary to simply add, because the
shadows on different floors, allows a greater light input than the sum of the shadows of different
strata on the same floor, so we will have to keep the rubber trees - high stratum, always with this
percentage of shade, if we want production in the lower strata. In between the lines we can plant
as low stratum, mombaça grass, so that it feeds the lines of fruits and rubber trees. With this we
will have a rejuvenation of the rubber trees, besides a greater income by the harvest of all the
fruits planted below her. What usually happens is that in conventional monoculture crops we
have a stress on plants due to several factors: - plants such as coffee, are of the low stratum, so it
is fundamental to have the other strata above it to avoid the stress of the plants. It may be thought
that coffee in full sun produces more, but it goes very well under the canopy of the upper strata,
the problem of planting it single is that we are tied to the excessive use of external inputs, since
the single crop has no one to feed the coffee, there is no pruning of the upper strata, there is no
litter formation that causes an increase of humus in the soil, bringing greater fertilildade, greater
accumulation of water in the soil, resistance to diseases. We cite coffee, but could be cultivated
plants of any stratum such as orange, pecan, peach, apple, mango, banana etc. - In between the
lines of crops they often dominate grasses or herbs that bloom fast, like brachiaria, and that if
poorly managed, not pruned at the right time, mature and cause a braking in the growth of the
trees and the abstraction of water from the atmosphere by mycorrhizae . From the moment we

45
understand this, we seek to colonize between the lines with a grass that is not of the same stratum
of the cultivated trees; for example, in an orange planting (medium stratum), we plant Mombasa
that is low stratum and not elephant grass that is high stratum, which would conflict with the
orange and would give a mess when pruned, because it regrows easily and would occupy the line
of trees making management difficult. Often we can only carry out a transition from tree
plantations to monoculture trees already installed for synoptic agriculture, if the trees accept
pruning, since the pruning will allow synchronizing the vigorous budding of the already installed
trees with the sprouting of the introduced seedlings. Sometimes this pruning means a cut.
Another example is coconut (emergent). Ernst Gotsch carried out a work in 2017 for the
company Ducoco, where he recommended the substitution of grass between the lines for a dry
panicum (green panicum) grass, recommending also to insert between the rows (9m wide)
alternating rows of cashew and neem (high stratum) 4.5m x 1m, intercalating with the planting of
cassava. The cashew as a high stratum does not fight with the coconut and will still produce fruits
and nuts. The neem will be used for pruning, fertilizing the lines of coconut and grass. Perhaps
the rule is when we are faced with a perennial cultivation in monoculture to ask ourselves: is it
possible to stimulate this cultivation ?, what plants can I introduce to better cover the soil and
occupy all strata if possible? Is it possible to do this mechanized? Edges must be worked - the
height of the lying tree defines its destination → if we can, cut or leave. Often when finishing a
plantation, on one side of the field we have a forest, or a plantation of eucalyptus, pine, etc. To
avoid a negative influence on our crops we have to manage these trees by pruning the edge into
the forest, removing the negative influence of a stratum out of sync with our field, which would
cause a depression in the growth of the plants. This negative influence on the field corresponds to
the length of the lying trees. So we can do a pruning in bevel and transfer all pruned material to
our field by fertilizing it. Remembering that it is much more damaging to our planting not to be
bathed by the light of the rising sun, than by the light of the setting sun.

Principle 8 - What every being is doing well.

The visible part of nature to the human being is infinitely less than the non-visible part, but in
most cases humans do not have the ability to look beyond the material, physical aspect. We are
unable to see what happens in the soil, what relationships are established between plants,
between microfauna and flora. We can hardly observe the animals if we do not use camouflage
techniques, hiding places, if that is not enough, there is still an unknown world in terms of
energy, empathy. Rupert Shaldrake, has proven through dozens of experiments that animals are
sensitive to fields of knowledge inaccessible to most humans. It is a common fact that animals
detect a tsunami before it happens. In the book, "Dogs Know When Their Owners Are Coming,"
Shaldrake shows the animals' ability to detect the owner's thought thousands of miles away,
animals have the ability to access subtle regions that the author has called morphogenetic fields.
The good news is that we can develop this capacity with the plants, when we work immersed in

46
nature, we become one with it. Ernst then proposes that whenever we come to a place and find
working animals (what many call plagues) we must ask, whether for ants, termites, insects, etc. -
What are you doing well ?, and before each intervention (pruning, handling etc.) ask: what can I
do to optimize the processes of life and bring more life to this place? Be a loved one in this
place? By asking these questions we are receptive to nature's answers.
In Nature, everything is in balance. Currently, the common bean crop under conventional
management does not support the whole range of agrochemicals to combat the diseases
and pests that arise. The intensive management of the bean crop, mainly under irrigated
production system, increased the high demand for the technological package of
production, soil preparation, selection of varieties, fertilization and management of pest
and disease control and grain harvest. The use of high chemical load in the form of
fertilizers and agrochemicals in a cerrado soil vulnerable to intensive production
interfered negatively. In addition, it broke the ecological balance of organisms, biological
cycles and the harmonic relationship of communities, creating a population dynamics
restricted to pests and diseases - resulting in problems that limit the production of
common bean. The mean spray number of insecticides and acaricides is 14.8 applications,
in addition to 9.2 for the control of diseases in irrigated systems. In the rainfed system,
the use of agrochemicals is 17.3% lower, but its average productivity is 21.6% lower than
irrigated. It can be observed that exaggerated numbers of applications performed for the
control are not having the proper efficiency and the losses begin to become evident, which
results in vulnerability: numerous soil diseases such as, mainly, white mold,
root-of-rhizoctonia, fuzzy wilt, and stem-gray rot.
In nature, it is common to find a range of microbiological diversity in flow, chains and
networks of development and dynamic relationship of populations. It is known that within
this biodiversity, less than 0.06% are phytopathogenic organisms of the bean in relation to
the microbiological world.
http://edcentaurus.com.br/agranja/edicao/749/materia/3649
When we adopt the syntropical agriculture we reestablish the biocenosis of the soil, the
community of microorganisms, only it in balance can bring back the health of our crops.
The research of the Plant Pathologist, Celso Tomita, demonstrated above, proves that it is
possible to completely abandon the pesticides reactivating life in the soil.

CONCLUSION
In order to succeed in the implementation and management of our agroforests, two points are
fundamental: 1 - To know deeply all the principles of the syntropical agriculture; 2 - Know the
needs and characteristics of all cultivated plants that grow well in our region, along with all
native and exotic plants that go well in our place, which means that we must know: place of
origin, popular name and scientific, resistance to pruning, stratum that the species occupies in the
47
forest, presence or absence of deciduous leaves, canopy architecture, flowering and fruiting
season, utilities for the human being, type of root system, growth speed, seed qualities dormancy,
etc.), if the species occurs naturally on good or weak soil, type of soil (clayey, sandy, mixed),
type of relief in which more occurs (lowering, springhead, boqueirão, top of morro etc.), life
cycle of the species (placenta, secondary I, II, or primary). This knowledge implies the
valorisation and rescue of local and traditional knowledge, which is an important basis for
agroforestry success. With this syntropic look of the world, there is no doubt that we will be able
to build agroforestry similar in form and function to the original forests of our place. Our brain as
well as nature presents itself as a network and current research shows that even our DNA is not
linear, the manifestation of genes depends more on an epigenetic network and cell metabolism to
manifest, than on DNA itself, so with this information in our "blood" we will easily establish the
necessary connections (among species) when we face the need to build agroforestry anywhere on
the planet, which was once a forest.

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APPENDIX I INDICATOR SPECIES
In the relationship that follows are some more common plants and the indications that they
provide. In this relation, after the common name, the scientific name and the type of soil where
its appearance is most frequent. The soil types are designated by the following abbreviations: A
= agricultural land; AP = agricultural land left for pasture formation; P = grass; C = closed.
Modified Rural Guide April, 1986.
- Amedoim bravo (Euphorbia heterophylla) - A - "dairy, invades soybean fields, indicates soils
where there is imbalance of nitrogen with micronutrients and especially with molybdenum and
copper.
- Ariri (Cocos vagans) - P - Appears on very burnt soils.
- Assa fish (Vernonia spp) - P - Indicates dry cerrado soils with slabs.
- Bacuri (Platonia insignis) - C - Palmeira do Cerrado. It indicates fertile solids, both physically
and chemically.
- Beard of goat (Aristida pallens) - C - Typical grass of landscape with fire. Indicates poverty of
phosphorus, calcium and potassium. Freshly sprouted, cattle accepted, Banishing the fire, can
give rise to other fodder.
- Beldroega (Portulaca oleracea and others) Pasture resource in drought (NE). Appears on the
best soils, protects the soil.
- Berneira or Maria mole (Senecio brasiliensis) - P - Indicates soils (pastures) with a thick layer
between 40 and 120 cm depth.
- Bitter grass or sugar grass (Digitaria insularia or Trichachne insularis) - A - P Appears on
anabandoned crops and pastures on wet patches where the water stagnates after rain. Never
indicates soils with good productivity.
- Amorous grass or burdock grass (Cenchrus echinatus) - A - P - Indicates very decayed, eroded
and densified agricultural fields. It also appears on pastures where trampling was intense in
adverse weather. Drowned or soil, it disappears.
- Grass grass or capybara grass (Echinochloa crusgalli) - A - Common in irrigated rice fields. It
indicates the formation of a "reduction horizon" (rich in toxic substances) just below the surface
of the soil. Eliminating the reduction horizon - by drainage - the grass no longer germinates.
- Pig Hair (Carex sp) - A - P - Appears on very compacted and anaerobic soils, with a whitish
calcium level. Highly benefited by the fires.
- Hairy grass (Trachypogon spp) - Typical fire landscape, no burned back.
- Capim caninha or grass colorado (Andropogon incanis) - P - It appears in soils temporarily

49
soaked and periodically burned (RS). Indicates acute phosphorus deficiency. Fertilized with
phosphate, it becomes good forage. In rotating grazing it tends to disappear.
- Favorite grass, grass grass or grass (Rhynchlytrum roseum) - Indication of very dry, decayed
soils.
- Marmalade grass or Papua grass (Brachiaria plantaginea) - A - Appears only on plowed or
barred soil. Good forrage. Indicates soils in decay.
- Burdock grass (Andropogon bicornis and others) - A - P - Indicates very acidic soils, with low
calcium content and an impermeable layer between 60 and 120 cm deep. Breaking the
underground slab, it disappears.
- Foxtail (Setaria geniculata) - P - A - Indicates poor soils. It makes a little green mass and
flowers early. During drought it can be a forage resource. Typical of road borders, where
compaction is greatest.
- Caraguatá or gravatá (Eryngium ciliatum) Bromeliacea typical of grasses with acid humus.
- Carquejas (Baccharis spp.) - P - They prefer terrains that in the rainy season, stagnate water,
from the subsoil to the surface, but which in the dry season, are very dry. They depend on soil
poverty in molybdenum.
- Chirca (Eupatorium spp.) - P - Indicates good conditions for cattle and only appears in soils
rich in molybdenum and in which where there is rotary management of pastures.
- White carnation or stinking herb (Tagetes erecta and T. minuta) b- A - They settle in large
numbers on soils infested by nematodes.
- Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) - P - It appears in pastures (S), indicating the presence of
boron in the soil. Cattle appreciate it as an aperitif. New leaves are edible for humans.
- Farmer or white sting (Galinsoga parviflora) - A - It appears on soils with excess nitrogen, but
deficient in micronutrients. Apparently it benefits from copper deficiency.
- Cage fern or fern fern (Pteridium aquilinum) - Indicates acidic and soaked soils.
- Silk grass, from the donkey, paulista or bermuda Grass (Cynodon dactylon) - A - P - Indicates
very compacted, heavily trampled soils. The soil where it appears is much richer than that where
the amorous one grows, but it is less compacted.
- Guaxuma, mauve or broom (Sida spp.) - Indicates where the subsoil is densified, or where the
topsoil has been washed away by erosion. Indicator of more or less thick slab, which restricts
root growth in general, but which guanxuma can overcome. Appears as a result of
aração profunda demais, de pisoteio de gadoou de movimentação excessiva de máquinas.
- Leguminosas em geral (Papilonaceae, Cassia, Mimosoideae) – indicam, no solo, presença de
phosphorus, which they increase. Missing potassium are dominated by grasses. Lacking calcium,

50
they are attacked by scale insects, such as pigeon pea, and their seeds are easily parasitized by
drills.
- Mentrasto (Ageratum conyzoides) - A - Indicates the physical improvement of the soil.
- Mio mio (Bacharis coridifolia) - P - It appears only in shallow soils. Indicates mainly
molybdenum deficiency in soil. In fields taken by mine, when burned, it disappears, because its
ashes contain so much molybdenum that they take away the capacity to grow.
- Nabisco or turnip greens (Raphanus raphanistrum) - A - Boron and manganese deficiency
indicator.
- Pine or jatropha (Jatropha curcas) - Indicates soils densified by the use of fire and exposure to
the impact of rains, alternating soil erosion and floods with droughts.
- Samanbaia da taperas (Pteridium aquilinum) CPA - Always indicates high levels of aluminum.
- Male toad, mother of thatch or lancet grass (Solidago microglossis) - A - Indicates very acidic
soils, with pH between 4.5 and 5.2.
- Sapé (Imperata exatalta) - A- P- Acid rich acid in aluminum, indicates a pH between 4.0 and
4.5.
- Tiririca or dandá grass (Cyperus rotundus) - A - Indicates very acidic, densely soaked and
temporarily soaked soils - or anaerobic by the loss of macropores. It also favors magnesium
deficiency in general.

APPENDIX II ERNST GÖTSCH

ERNST GÖTSCH establishes the following criteria for measuring the sustainability of an
AGROFLORESTAL SYSTEM DIRECTED BY NATURAL SUCCESSION (Workshop given by Ernst
Götsch, Alto Beni, Bolivia, 2001):
Ground:
● Percentage of soil surface covered by organic matter;
● Composition of the covering material (the larger the lignified and / or coriaceous fraction, the
better);
● Coverage thickness;
● Activity of microflora and microfauna;

Vegetation:
● Vegetal cover (%);
● Vigor and health of vegetation;
● Stratification of the dominant consortium;

51
● Development, complexity and individual distribution of each species;
● Complexity, health, vigor and development of the consortiums that will dominate in the system of
which the dominant consortium is (is) part; or, in the case where the latter was dominated by
primary species, regenerative vigor of the same system;
● Capacity of the system to increase, by its self-dynamics, the quality and quantity of consolidated
life, both in the "sublugar" in which it is, and in the whole Planet Earth.

Ecological Impact:
● Proximity of the agroecosystem to the natural and original ecosystem of the place as to its mode
of functioning ecophysiologically, and as to its dynamics and its impact on the whole Planet
Planet;
● Impact of the use of inputs considering all current from its production to the direct and indirect
impacts caused by its use.

Economic:

● Cost-benefit related to labor requirements for its implementation and maintenance, the latter in
the short, medium and long term;
● Use of inputs;
● Cost-benefit considering the total impacts caused by the system in relation to the development of
the planet's resources (soil, biodiversity, drinking water, hydrocarbons, petroleum, etc.),
atmosphere, etc. Including costs caused by the impacts caused by production, transport and trade
in inputs).
Social:
● Distribution of the requirement for use of labor during the year;
● Accessibility (dependence on the use of high technology and other investments for its
implementation);
●
● Dependence of external factors (credit, market etc).
● Faced with such complexities the implantation of Agroforestry Systems Directed by Natural
Succession depend to a large extent on:
● an effective didactic instrument so that the farmer understands all the principles involved in the
implantation and maintenance of a successional agroforest;
● Availability of labor;
● Access of the farmer to his main means of production, which is land.

52