CULTIVATING CLIMATE JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN BRAZILIAN VEGETABLE FAMILY FARMING: SOIL ORGANIC CARBON FRACTIONS IN GREENHOUSE MELON AS A CO-BENEFIT AND JUST TRANSITION STRATEGY

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Abstract
Greenhouse melon cultivation in the Brazilian Midwest sits at the intersection of climate daptation, low-carbon agriculture, and food justice, especially for vegetable family farming, which produces about 67% of national vegetables despite occupying only 23% of agricultural land and facing high climate vulnerability. This study evaluated soil organic carbon (SOC) and its physical fractions under conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), and No-Till Vegetable Systems (NTVS) during two greenhouse melon crop cycles in a very clayey dystrophic Rhodic Ferralsol in Brasília, Brazil. The experiment followed a randomized block design with six replicates, two soil depths (0-10 and 10-30 cm), four repeated samplings, and physical fractionation into particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC). Significant management × time interactions were detected for POC, MAOC, and SOC mainly in the 0-10 cm layer. POC was the most dynamic fraction, with sharper short-term fluctuations and greater losses under CT, while NTVS and MT generally provided better conditions for carbon retention. MAOC was more stable, but in the second cycle at 0-10 cm it showed a strong positive correlation with SOC (r = 0.970; P = 0.030), suggesting closer tracking of total carbon dynamics in that phase and a possible faster SOC dynamic in Greenhouse cultivation. These results indicate that greenhouse melon under NTVS and MT can align edaphic regeneration, climate adaptation, and just transition goals in Brazilian vegetable family farming.