Knowing how to use, we won't miss: the practice of seed collectors in the Vão do Moleque Community - Kalunga, GO
Territory. Seeds. Extrativismo. Women. Impacts.
The Kalunga Vão do Moleque Quilombola Community has more than 300 years of struggles, resistance and traditions. Its population basically lives off family farming, hunting and fishing and plant extraction. However, in recent years the residents have discovered a new way of increasing their family income by collecting and selling seeds from native Cerrado plants, in addition to what they already collect for their own subsistence. The collection is usually done by families, but it is the women who are largely responsible for carrying out this work. The women collect the seeds and sell them in order to make a profit and ensure that their basic needs are met. This process of collecting and purifying the seeds so that they don't lose their ability to germinate makes the work productive and adds symbolic and monetary value. The 'Cerrado de Pé Association (based in Alto Paraiso de Goiás/GO) is the community's main partner in this process. It buys the seeds from the community's seed collectors. Thus, the aim here was to find out what impacts the practice of collecting seeds has on the Vão do Moleque community and on that environmental space. The methodology used was based on the theoretical assumption of qualitative work, using field research and conversation circles with the seed collectors. In addition, we sought to point out the potential and weaknesses of the Kalunga Territory through seed collection, presenting the existing diversity that is being collected as well as the species that are still invisible within this processing practice.