A Piscicultura no contexto Amazônico: evolução e especialização produtiva no Estado do Pará.

Abstract

Freshwater fish farming is the most developed aquaculture sector in Brazil, based mainly on the production of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. In the Amazon, the role of native fish, especially the tambaqui Colossoma macropomum is one of the features of this activity when compared to the other regions of the country. In addition, there are socio-economic, cultural, logistical and legal aspects that make each state inserted in this biome unique in terms of demands for the development of fish farming. In this context, Pará is one of the states with the most underused potential, which leads to the inability to supply its market with local production, needing to acquire fresh whole fish from other states, such as Rondônia, Mato Grosso and Maranhão, mainly tambaqui and tambatinga fish.,. The objective of this research was to analyze the technical, productive and market aspects of fish farming in the states that comprise the Brazilian Amazon and to assess the evolution and level of specialization of the activity in the micro-regions of Pará from 2013 to 2019, using the location quotient (QL). The limiting factors for the fish farming activity in the Amazon region are regulatory frameworks that are more restrictive than federal legal norms; social organizations of inactive producers, especially cooperatives; and complex logistics for obtaining inputs and transporting production, which make the final product more expensive. The official data available demonstrate that Rondônia, Mato Grosso and Maranhão stand out in the regional production, with a higher development stage than the others in the structuring of the production chain. In the Pará state, the difficulty in regularizing the enterprises and the consequent impossibility of access to rural credit represent the main limiting factor for attracting investments and structuring the production chain. The micro-regions of Paragominas, Tucuruí, Marabá, Parauapebas, Redenção and São Félix do Xingu are important productive poles of pisciculture, demanding more attention from decision-makers concerning public policies and the social actors of the chain in the cooperation to promote competitiveness. The privileged natural conditions and the availability of skilled labor represent assets in the search for the development of the activity in Amazonian states with little explored fish farming potential, as well as being the best tools to negotiate larger investments and more efficient public policies, a path that necessarily passes through the social organization of producers at the local and regional level.