Modelos agrossilvipastoris para pequenas propriedades agrícolas do nordeste paraense.

Abstract

In the smallholder properties of Brazilian Amazon, cattle ranching has expanded due to the advantages of cattle production chain and the technical and market limitations of the crops. In the Northeast Pará, some producers have established small areas of pastures and managed small herds, mainly with the objective of investing profits from crops. There are indications of pasture and herd problems that limit the production and cattle ranching sustainability, and threaten the crops that really sustain the property. To propose economic and ecological land-use alternatives has been a great challenge of agriculture research in Brazilian Amazon. The silvo-pastoral (SPS) and agro-silvo-pastoral systems (ASPS) have been considered promising to integrate tree and crops in cattle ranching and reclaim areas of degraded pasture. This study objected to generate information, technology and alternative models to traditional cattle ranching system developed in the smallholder properties of Northeast Pará. In the Chapter 1 “Characterization and evaluation of pastures and cattle at smallholder in Northeast Pará State”, pasture and herd management were described and evaluated, and the constraint points and the technical solutions identified; in the Chapter 2 “Evaluation of tree species and pastures in silvo-pastoral systems in Paragominas, Pará, Brazil”, the performance of tree and pasture components of several SPS were evaluated; and in the Chapter 3 “Proposal of agro-silvo-pastoral system models for smallholder properties in Northeast Pará State”, based upon the information from the study on cattle ranching in smallholder properties (Chapter 1), and the results of the potential of several promising SPS in Paragominas (Chapter 2), three ASPS models were compared objecting to increase the economic and ecological sustainability of cattle ranching in smallholder properties of Northeast Pará.