Leontino Balbo revolutionizes agriculture in the way he produces 30% of the world’s organic cane sugar, enhancing also bio-diversity and social conditions. His childhood reminds us of Kipling’s ‘Mowgli’, fishing in streams, disappearing for long days into the jungle and marshes, where he developed a deep sense of love and understanding of nature that fuels his groundbreaking innovation that aligns large-scale agriculture profitably with sustainability.
Watch Leontino Balbo: Listening to Nature Sustainablizes Big Agriculture HERE
Leontino says:
“The principle behind [my] agricultural management is to activate the alive forces which are present in the ecosystem and how we do that? I learned it observing in the forest, how the ants, how the termites, how the earthworms act along the different the stages of the year. Winter, summer and so on.
I took 15 years to learn how to replicate a natural production model into a commercial production model.
I took 15 years to learn how to replicate a natural production model into a commercial production model. This includes replacing chemical fertilizers by ground rock, almost for free. The results are better with ground rock.
Replacing agro-chemicals against insects by biological control or taking the cane to a situation where the cane tissues can’t be digested by plagues. So, many many steps many many challenges were overcome until we could put together the whole production system from planting until harvesting.
It’s ready to be applied in the cane in Brasil, so we can have at the same cost of conventional, we can have 15% more yield. Or we can have the same yield they have at 15% less cost. You know? Besides having far very important environmental services we provide to the community, increasing the biodiversity of vertebrates and microorganism, decreasing the carbon emissions, recovering sweetwater in the soil and streams and recovering the soil fertility.
So this is more or less what this new production model can offer to the society because the soil is considered one of the most important resources regarding sustainability which we must preserve in order to guarantee the survival of the next generations.”
Not only has Leontino implemented agricultural systems that are friendly to the environment – both natural and human – he has been able to make his crops more productive, draught and pest resistant than chemical and GMO driven agriculture. And he does so with less cost and more profit.
To learn more about Leontino’s model and how he developed such overwhelming success in his mission to bring sustainability into commercial agriculture, watch Leontino Balbo: Listening to Nature Sustainablizes Big Agriculture, in dialogue with GlobalLeadership.TV’s host and founder Walter Link.
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