Caracterização das variedades de cafés ancestrais cultivados em sistemas agroflorestais de quintais no nordeste paraense

Abstract

The pioneering role of the state of Pará in coffee production during the 19th century in Brazil promoted a dissemination process that spread coffee plants throughout several municipalities of the state. This expansion made Pará the country's first coffee exporter, shipping coffee from Belém to Portugal in 1732. Coffee cultivation took place mainly in areas near rivers, with the Capim and Guamá rivers playing an important role in the spread of coffee plants across regions that currently include the municipalities of Irituia, São Domingos do Capim, Ourém, Capitão Poço, Mãe do Rio, and São Miguel do Guamá, which today exhibit strong agricultural characteristics. The decline of coffee production in the region was associated with difficulties in adapting the crop to the local climate and with the emergence of the rubber boom. In this context, it can be inferred that the remaining coffee plants in the region may exhibit adaptive characteristics to hot climates, similar to those found in Coffea canephora and Coffea liberica, the latter also showing greater resistance to the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. Therefore, family farming and agroforestry homegardens are recognized as important systems responsible for maintaining these coffee plants over time. Thus, the need to characterize coffee cultivated in agroforestry homegarden systems in the Guamá mesoregion and to investigate their ancestry represents an important contribution to understanding the conservation and persistence of these plants. Accordingly, this study seeks to characterize coffee cultivated in agroforestry homegarden systems as ancestrais coffee. The methodology involved a secondary bibliographic survey using the descriptor “Coffee Ancestry.” The study consulted the CAPES Periodicals Portal, academic articles, dissertations, theses, books, and other sources to expand the available information on the topic. In addition, field research employed audiovisual resources, including photographic records, georeferencing using GPS (Global Positioning System), and the application of questionnaires containing open-ended, closed-ended, and semi-structured questions aimed at identifying ancestry through information regarding the origin of the homegardens. Open-ended questions focused on producers’ accounts concerning the origin of the coffee plants cultivated in their homegardens. Interviews were conducted with property owners, seeking to explore the concepts of ancestry and the origin of coffee plants in their agroforestry systems. The results demonstrate that Pará played a central role in the introduction of coffee into Brazil, suggesting that ancestral coffee plants cultivated in agroforestry homegardens in northeastern Pará may be remnants of the first coffee plants introduced to Belém in 1727. The study also highlights the importance of agroforestry homegardens for biodiversity conservation and for the integration of fruit and forest species of ecological significance.