Cariris paraibanos: do sesmarialismo aos assentamentos de reforma agrária. Raízes da desertificação?

Abstract

In the Western Cariri of Paraíba, between 2006 and 2008, in the Federal Rural Assessment Projects Eldorado dos Carajás e Novo Mundo, Feijão/Mandacaru, Serrote Agudo/Zé Marcolino, Pinheiros, located in Camalaú, Sumé, Prata e Coxixola, respectively, was carried out a ResearchAction by Embrapa Algodão/UniCampo/UFCG, emphasizing the desertification process with the objective to minimize/mitigate it. If there isn’t an environmental precaution in the installation of the Assessment Projects, it takes to hard expressions of agriculture and cattle raising process and an increase in the environmental degradation. For an environmental adequacy and a recovery of the degraded areas, Caatinga Management Unit with Agro Ecological Systems were implanted, with its base in the caatinga vegetation, where crops like corn, been, cotton, Buffel grass, castor been, Indian cactus, sisal and madacuru were introduced , with the objective to get agro ecological coefficients. The Witness Areas, with caatinga not disturbed, when compared with Anthropic Areas by Indian cactus and the degraded ones, presented the best values to the field capacity and soil available water, Ca, SB, CTC e MO, medium values to MG, Al and H and low values to P, K and pH. In all areas (Witness, Anthropic and Degraded) the values of Ca and Mg and the SB’s and CTC’s and V% presented high. The Assessed People interviewed answered 50% positively and 37,5% in a medium way to the management of the caatinga, in relation to deforest/deforesting. The average time they spend to work 1,0 ha of caatinga is 26 days which means saving 17% to plant Indian cactus, and it can generate 296 to351 units of wild products and at least 1.302,70 kg/MS/ha, resulting in diversity distributed in 24 species and 14 botanical families. Crops like Indian cactus, sisal and mandacaru were considered adequate to the Agro Ecological Systems, although the production values got to corn and bean planted inside the caatinga were very expressive. During all the research, was clear that the assessed people, technicians and researchers need a better adequacy to the agro-ecological proposal and that the social, economical and institutional interventions can contribute to create and make feasibly an environmental planning that can be able to correct/quell the vulnerability of environments and populations and the occurrence of the desertification process in the Assessment areas. Understand the caatinga as an input and not as an obstacle to the production it is a way to cut the Roots of Desertification, which really exist and is increasing by Agricultural Reformation badly planned and badly executed.