Abstract
<p>The present work aims to clarify the discursive practices of Brazilian scientific literature on chemical pesticides in order to understand, from a historical perspective, which repertoires are available to give meaning to the use of pesticides in Brazil. It further draws a picture of the positions taken in the technical area, from the creation of the “Agrochemicals Law” in 1989 until the present day. A total of 78 articles from ten journals were reviewed using the analysis of the discourses method as well as an overview of the database according to years, authors, and titles. The results show that scientific production is concentered in the south and southeast Brazilian institutions where the authors mostly come from. Their articles analyze presented repertoires that were categorized into three types: "required use of pesticides", "use of pesticides integrated with biological control”, and "no use of pesticides". The results suggest that there is no consensus in the discursive practices of Brazilian scientific literature on agrochemicals. It was concluded that there is in literature the suggestion that integrated pest control could improve the quality of production and lessen impacts on health and the environment. The dominant discourse is still linked to the paradigm that in order to have a high level of food production it is still necessary to use pesticides.</p>
Highlights
Agrochemicals were introduced in Brazil at the end of the 1940s, it was only in the 1960s that they became more widely used and accompanied by chemical fertilizers, liming, hybrid and certified seeds, and tractors and other machinery
The present work aims to clarify the discursive practices of Brazilian scientific literature on chemical pesticides in order to understand, from a historical perspective, which repertoires are available to give meaning to the use of pesticides in Brazil
The results suggest that there is no consensus in the discursive practices of Brazilian scientific literature on agrochemicals
Summary
Agrochemicals were introduced in Brazil at the end of the 1940s, it was only in the 1960s that they became more widely used and accompanied by chemical fertilizers, liming, hybrid and certified seeds, and tractors and other machinery The introduction of these technologies was the result of the growing rural expansion in the country and the strong material support from the government as well as North American entrepreneurs (Alves Filho, 2002). Between the years 1970 and 1980, a program aimed at gradually eliminating Brazilian dependence on imports was implemented This encouraged local production, resulting in a technological leap with the synthesis of various molecules contained in the agrochemicals and the establishment of the PDA (National Plan of Agrochemicals) in 1975 (Porto & Soares, 2012). Agriculture was seen as an industrial consumer market within a general process of industrialization of the Brazilian economy
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