Marked by the very nature: the Imperial Instituto Fluminense de Agricultura and the agricultural sciences (1860-1891)

THESIS AND DISSERTATIONS

Marked by the very nature: the Imperial Instituto Fluminense de Agricultura and the agricultural sciences (1860-1891)

Begonha Eliza Hickman Bediaga

[e-mail]. Doctoral Thesis, Post-Graduate Program in Teaching and History of Earth Sciences, State University of Campinas, Campinas (São Paulo) - Brazil 2011

This thesis analyses the trajectory of the Imperial Instituto Fluminense de Agricultura (IIFA), a private institution founded by State officials, landowners and ‘men of sciences’. The Institute’s main goal was to improve agricultural production in Brazl, through changes in farming practices, adoption of new equipment and the introduction of scientific principles into the rural activities. The men of sciences linked to IIFA aimed at the ‘ideal of progress of civlized countries’ and took as their ‘mission’ to convince farmers to adopt a science-based agriculture. IIFA was constituted by: the Jardim Botânico [Botanical Garden] da Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, which besides being a leisure area was also responsible for the production of seedling and seeds in large scale to be distributed to farmers; the Fazenda Normal, a farm with the purpose of serving as grounds to the practice of technical and scientific experimentation; and the Asilo Agrícola [Agricultural Asylum], a foster home that sheltered orphans from the Santa Casa da Misericórdia and taught them reading, writing and the profession of farming. IIFA issued the Revista Agricola [Agricultural Journal] consistently for 22 years. The three-monthly magazine aimed at spreading farming-related themes, with a view to improving and raising agricultural production. The thesis shows that the Institute served as a locus for institutionalizing the scientific fields related to Agriculture in Brazil, such as Agricultural Chemistry, Forestry, Pedology, Agricultural Meteorology, Phytopatology and Animal Husbandry, to the point they could conquer their own spaces.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  26 Jan 2012
• Date of issue
  Dec 2011