Syntropic Agriculture

Syntropic agriculture is an agricultural production system based on the principle that tends to converge energy in an efficient and, above all, organised manner, so as to avoid its dispersion (entropy).
This agroforestry management technique originated with the native peoples of the Amazon and has been further developed since the 1980s by the Swiss researcher and farmer Ernst Götsch in Brazil.
The natural succession of species is the principle behind syntropic agriculture, where cooperation between members benefits the whole system. Götsch’s approach, in fact, interprets what Darwin saw as competition and destruction as nature’s attempt to achieve a balance that benefits the system of a natural environment.
This system, which does not involve the use of pesticides or biopesticides, allows after about two years an increase in productivity while preserving natural resources and helps to reverse soil degradation by restoring biodiversity.
Within a few years, the system acquires partial autonomy, providing its own irrigation and fertilisation, resisting diseases and eliminating unwanted plants. The resistance to disease is due to its biological density, which allows it to act like a healthy gut flora.
At the basis of syntropic agriculture are planting schemes with the aim of producing sequences of crops, one after the other, starting with vegetables and then moving on to fruit and finally to wood from trees.