The basics of Syntropic farming

Over the last couple of years Syntropic Agriculture is gaining ground in temperate climates on the European continent. In this article we tell you more about the background and its main principles.

Complex agroforestry embracing biodiversity

Syntropic agriculture is a complex form of agroforestry developed in Brazil in the 1980s. The farming method is based on decades of experimentation, inspired by observations on how life, fertility, and abundance naturally emerge on Earth.

In the process of ecological succession, communities of life (plants, animals, soil life) generate the conditions needed for the next communities to thrive. This is how fertility is naturally built up in ecosystems, and energy is accumulated.

Ernst G?tsch advocated for an ancient system of climate and biodiversity-friendly farming, and by applying specific techniques and the TAO for our understanding of life, he developed and incorporated syntropic farming as a formal innovative methodology and approach to sustainable agriculture.

The origins of the term 'syntropy'

The term syntropy refers to the capacity of a system to self organize towards complexity. While industrial-chemical based agriculture tends towards entropy by burning more energy than producing, poisoning and desertifying landscapes, Syntropic Agroforestry regenerates ecosystems, increasing the life holding capacities of a place through knowledgeable design and carefully (timed) management. It mimics and accelerates natural succession to optimize ecological processes in production systems. It aims for a positive energetic balance, in which more life energy is created over time, generating a surplus and adding life to the existing system.?

This form of agriculture asks for a paradigm shift from earth exploitation to ecosystem regeneration and abundance.

Syntropic Agroforestry restores water cycles, soil fertility, biodiversity and has the capacity to offer multiple sources of food, medicine, fiber, wood, and economic opportunities to farmers. In these agroecological systems, human beings become active agents in the emergence of life, and our function within these ecosystems comes down to seed dispersal, timed disturbance, creating conditions for other beings to thrive and harvesting the abundance.?

Designed for Ecological & Socioeconomic contexts

Syntropic Agroforestry systems are designed considering both the local ecological and socioeconomic contexts. These complex systems offer the ability to obtain high yields throughout the regeneration and development of the ecosystem. Syntropic farmers can harvest vegetables and herbs from the first year while other future target crops grow healthily and profusely in the same space.

A syntropic system is continually changing, even though all plants are already there from the start either as seed, cutting or transplant, it will look different as it matures. The first years are called the placenta, it is the beginning of the succession. Vegetables and herbs both annual and biennial that need lots of light will be the primary crops along with small fruit bushes.

As time passes and the system evolves, the secondary growth will take the spotlight, it is the time of the older fruit trees, bushes and perennial vegetables to produce the most. Later on, climax vegetation is at its peak, producing more fruits, nuts, hardwood timber and filtered light loving plants that thrive in the understory.?

Eight key principles

Syntropic Agroforestry systems are based on eight key principles:

1. Maximize photosynthesis?
2. Mimic natural succession and stratification
3. Prune to optimize photosynthesis and natural succession
4. Synchronize plantings to the phase of ecological succession the site is in
5. Maintain the soil covered and plant densely
6. Concentrate energy, generate biomass efficiently in situ
7. Understand the ecophysiology of plants and their ecosystem function
8. Observe and be receptive to what the landscape is saying

In our next articles we will tell you more about each of these.

Special thanks to the following sources:

• Ernst G?tsch. Break-through in Agriculture. August '94. Available here
• José Fernando Dos Santos Rebello & Daniela Ghiringhello Sakamoto. Agricultura Sintrópica Segundo Ernst G?tsch. Editora Reviver 2021. Available here in Portuguese.
• Marc Leiber. What is Syntropic Farming? September 2022. Available here.