Potencial de expansão da irrigação em bacia hidrográfica da região do médio curso do Rio Paraíba.

Abstract

Due to Paraíba having a significant portion of its territory inserted in a semi-arid environment, the use of irrigation emerges as an important technology to increase the production and diversity of agricultural crops. However, the development of sustainable irrigated agriculture requires the availability of land with characteristics favorable to this practice. This work aimed to identify and evaluate the potential for the expansion of irrigation in the region of the middle course of the Paraíba River using geotechnologies. A MapBiomas file for rural areas and settlements was used. Urban areas were identified through a Geoinfo digital file. To classify and map the irrigated areas, data from IBGE was used. In the classification of the current irrigated and fertirrigated area and the additional irrigable area, data from ANA were used. For the elaboration of the maps, the SIG SPRING 5.5 was used and the calculations of the areas were carried out. For this work, irrigated and fertirrigated areas were identified in the municipalities of Boqueirão, Queimadas, Itatuba, Barra de São Miguel, and areas of additional irrigable expansion were identified in the municipalities of Boqueirão and Aroeiras. The agricultural areas identified and mapped represented 21.42% of the productive establishments. In the evaluation, it was found that there was no growth in the irrigated area in the basin between the years 1980 and 2017. The irrigated areas are concentrated around the Bodocongó River, the Paraíba River and close to the Acauã reservoir. In the irrigation expansion potential of additional irrigable, the limiting factors of the soils must be taken into account, and the use of conservation practices must be recommended.