Um olhar para a agricultura familiar : relevância durante a pandemia de Covid-19, percepção dos agricultores e seu papel na manutenção da diversidade de abelhas no semiárido do Piauí, Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Diverse landscapes support greater biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as pollination and insect control. However, the way in which the expansion and intensification of agriculture is conducted globally is compromising ecosystem services worldwide. The aim of this thesis was to assess the relevance of family farming, considering its contribution to food security, the perception of ecosystem services and the maintenance of bee abundance and diversity in the semi-arid region of Piauí. The data was obtained through interviews, analysis of the flow of food sales and collecting bees using pan traps. Sixteen landscapes were selected, delimited by a 1 km buffer, with collection points defined via Google Maps and validated in the field, complemented by drone images. Mapping was carried out in QGIS (scale 1:5000), identifying eight land use and occupation units: Water, Savannah, Family Farming, Human Settlement, Forest, Exposed Soil, Native Grassland and Urban Area. In addition, the NDVI was used to assess the variation in vegetation cover between the dry and rainy periods, and three landscape metrics were calculated (fragment density, landscape percentage and Shannon index) at four spatial scales (250, 500, 750 and 1000 m) to investigate the scale of effect. From a social point of view, farmers play an important role in local food security, highlighting the diversity of food products, the continuous production of most items, the organization in associations, the use of technologies such as social networks and the partnerships established, which have been fundamental in times of crisis to guarantee the distribution and sale of agricultural products. The weak points are mainly related to the lack of technical assistance. From an environmental point of view, the results indicate that the composition and abundance of bees in the semi-arid region of Piauí are influenced by the structure of the landscape. Human settlements favored abundance at scales of 750 to 1000 m, possibly because they provided floral resources. Bee richness varied with the density of savannah fragments and NDVI, reflecting seasonality. With regard to environmental perception, the farmers demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the categories of ecosystem services, valuing mainly those of provision and culture, since they depend on natural resources for their livelihoods and leisure.