Embrapa and the construction of scientific heritage in Brazilian agriculture: Sowing memory
Embrapa and the construction of scientific heritage in Brazilian agriculture: Sowing memory
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DOI：
10.1111/dpr.12531
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发表时间：
2021-02-28
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Cabral, Lidia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Cabral, Lidia
巴西农业研究公司（Embrapa）因将塞拉多地区纳入巴西现代农业而闻名，该公司发现了如何改善贫瘠土壤和开发适应热带地区的大豆种子。被称为热带革命，巴西自己的绿色革命，这一过去的事件继续定义着Embrapa的身份和巴西的农业科技，强化了农业发展的观点，而忽视了替代方案。本文旨在了解Embrapa如何在巴西农业历史上留下自己的名字，创造一个具有全球知名度的强大民族品牌。它探讨了什么构成了Embrapa的“组织遗产”，这是如何在组织内建立的，以及产生了什么影响。2014年，为了纪念Embrapa成立40周年，撰写了一部官方历史（“Memoria Embrapa”），重点介绍了该组织的成功及其原因。对这一来源进行了回顾，然后结合了对29名Embrapa研究人员关于组织遗产的优势和缺点的访谈证据。Embrapa的成功故事集中在精选的技术突破、训练有素、积极进取的科学家，以及对巴西社会的使命感。然而，这忽略了一些不适合简化历史的成功、挑战和替代研究方法。这样的遗漏有三点很明显：(1)官方历史几乎没有提到对大规模农业传播对环境和社会影响的担忧——而巴西农业研究公司的大部分研究正是为这些担忧服务的；(2) Embrapa建立了一个国家种子库，土著群体要求访问，因为他们在种子库中保存了大量的遗传物质（政策改变了，允许土著群体访问，并促进了科学家和农民之间的对话）；(3)类似地，Embrapa的一些科学家努力与当地专家和民族科学合作，以丰富和拓宽研究。在历史上扎根巴西农业研究公司的品牌使叙事持久，难以挑战。这可能会造成一种关于巴西农业研究公司和巴西农业的简单、单一的叙述，助长了技术官僚对高科技和技术转让作为农业发展和粮食安全的主要途径的执着。这在20世纪70年代可能被认为是必要的，但是越来越多的农业研究议程必须包括环境可持续性和农业生物多样性的保护、气候变化、社会公平以及尊重不同研究方式的参与，包括从农民的长期实践中学习。
Motivation The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa, is well known for incorporating the Cerrado into Brazil's modern agriculture through its discoveries of how to improve infertile soils and to develop soybean seeds adapted to the tropics. Known as the Tropical Revolution, Brazil's own Green Revolution, this past episode continues to define Embrapa's identity and Brazil's agricultural science and technology, reinforcing a view of agricultural development while neglecting alternatives.Purpose This article seeks to understand how Embrapa has carved its name in Brazil's agricultural history, creating a powerful national brand with global recognition. It explores what constitutes Embrapa's "organizational heritage," how this has been built within the organization and to what effect.Approach and methods To commemorate Embrapa's 40th anniversary in 2014, an official history ("Memoria Embrapa") was written, focusing on the success of the organization and the reasons for this. This source has been reviewed, then combined with evidence from interviews with 29 Embrapa researchers about the strengths and shortcomings of organizational heritage.Findings Embrapa's story of success focuses on selected technological breakthroughs, highly trained and motivated scientists, and a sense of mission towards Brazilian society. This omits, however, some successes, challenges and alternative approaches to research that do not fit well with the simplified history. Three such omissions stand out: (1) the official history barely mentions the concerns about the environmental and social impacts of the spread of large-scale farming-which much of Embrapa's research had served; (2) Embrapa created a national seed bank, to which indigenous groups demanded access since they had conserved much of the genetic material in the bank (policy was changed to allow indigenous groups access and to promote a dialogue between the scientists and the farmers); and (3), in similar vein, some scientists in Embrapa endeavour to engage with local expertise, with ethnoscience, to enrich and broaden the research.Policy implications Rooting Embrapa's brand in history makes the narrative persistent and hard to challenge. This risks creating a simplified, monolithic narrative about Embrapa and Brazilian agriculture that feeds technocratic fixations with high science and transfer of technology as the dominant pathway to agricultural development and food security. This may have been considered necessary in the 1970s, but increasingly the agricultural research agenda must include environmental sustainability and conservation of agricultural biodiversity, climate change, social fairness and a respectful engagement with different ways of researching, including learning from the longstanding practices of farmers.