Dinâmica da produção de palma forrageira no Cariri Ocidental Paraibano.

Abstract

Among the livestock activities carried out in Brazilian’s Semiarid, the creation of ruminants is of great importance, even under unfavorable edaphoclimatic conditions. In view of this, it becomes necessary to strategize the management and cultivation of species also adapted to these conditions to complement production. Among agricultural crops, palm is a good proposal, since it presents adaptation to the semi-arid environment and a large production of phyto-mass of energy value, which simultaneously reduces seasonal variation in the production of forages. In this way, the objective was to evaluate the dynamics of forage palm in the municipalities of Western Cariri, associating the results obtained with the local patterns of animal husbandry and rainfall. The production data for cattle, goats and sheep were obtained from the Agricultural Census 2017, provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the values of rainfall through the Executive Water Management Agency of the State of Paraíba For analysis of the influence of the variables on the production of the forage palm culture in Western Cariri, a correlation matrix and a descriptive analysis of main components (ACP) were performed. All the municipalities under study had planted area with forage palm. There was a positive correlation of forage palm production with all variables evaluated. For number of agricultural establishments that cultivate forage palm and quantity produced (r = 0.92), quantity produced and total area harvested with forage palm (r = 0.9) and number of agricultural establishments that cultivate forage palm and bovine: goat ratio -vine (r = 0.8), there was a high correlation. Thus, it is observed that the cultivation of forage palm is a notorious crop with significant production and can be called the main pillar of agricultural production and socioeconomic development in the municipalities of Western Cariri.