A Biodynamic Agriculture Model Based on Rock Dust: A Case Study in Campos Novos, Roraima, Brazil

Abstract

The success of using rock dust as a non-chemical fertilizer, a major asset of biodynamic agriculture, has led to a large amount of research, often highly theoretical, sometimes overlooking common trade-offs in agriculture. For example, soil enrichment can increase potential carbon loss, while a high sodium concentration increases the risk of soil hardening. Researchers have shown that correcting soil nutritional deficiencies can also be achieved through the application of finely ground rocks, such as rock phosphates, gypsum, mafic and ultramafic rocks, and more recently silicate rocks. These are abundant and often available as fine residues from grinding processes in quarries. According to these researchers, rocks contain many nutrients, including K, Ca, and Mg, making the systematic use of laboratory analyses unnecessary, in their view. In other words, most researchers avoid the joint analysis of rocks and soils, particularly geochemical and mineralogical analyses, preferring to highlight, through literature reviews, the benefits of sustainable fertilizers. This includes the improvement of soil warming or soil regeneration, in contrast to the high costs comparable to those of fossil fuels. Furthermore, they do not consider rock dust as a “homemade” biodynamic fertilizer. The difficulty for cooperatives to acquire grinding machines requires a closer relationship between agriculture and geological expertise, in order to be able to analyze both rocks and soils (compatibility studies). This also requires a union between farmers to initiate this “innovation” and build their own grinders on the farm. Therefore, the research question posed is: how does culture link to knowledge and intelligence to determine the type of culture needed for effective biodynamic agriculture? This work therefore proposes two complementary research models. In addition to the Culture-Knowledge-Intelligence (CKI) model, the article presents a biodynamic agriculture model: a mature approach to better exploit the resources available on the farm itself. The study concludes that this model is useful for small farmers, through cooperatives, to adopt artisanal agricultural practices, such as the use of rock dust as a new fertilizer, alone or mixed with manure.

Keywords: family farming, cooperatives, knowledge management,cultural intelligence, local solutions

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/16-4-03

Publication date: June 30th 2025