This presentation has as purpose to reveal how climate changes are affecting the cultivating of beans in a rural community located in the Mata region of the state of Minas Gerais, in Southeast Brazil. The community survives from the work as casual labour on local farms, as well as small landowners, from self-consume plantations in the periods of regular rains. As an important item of the local food production, beans have been cultivated using traditional methods handed down through generations. Based on perception skills, as well as local knowledge these traditional practices of bean cultivation such as tillage practices, seed selection and bean drying methods have been threatened by the significant changes observed in the patterns of rain and extreme temperatures. The presentation reports the results of a qualitative research based on local observation and interviews with these small-scale growers showing how they feel challenged not only to rescue old practices of facing harsh conditions of planting used by their ancestors, but also to discover new ways of preserving their customs of growing their own food.
