干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

This paper aimed to characterize the main agricultural productive systems of the county of Ibimirim in the semi-arid region of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, in order to obtain data that can serve as subsidy to the implementation of agroforestry systems. Different productive unities were characterized through semi-structured interviews with local agriculturists selected through a stratified sampling. Each layer was composed by the main activity executed by the family which correspondent to: group 1: irrigated agricultural systems; group 2: traditional systems and forest extractivism; group 3: apiculture; group 4: handicraft fishing. The sample was composed by 5% of the small agriculturist in the groups 1, 2 and 3 and 2% in the group 4, due to this group being more homogeneous. The irrigated agriculture stood out in economic terms, althought it has demonstrated limited autonomy due to external raw materials dependence in addition to contribute to soil and hydric resource degradation. The traditional systems high adaptability and the apiculture conservationist character have generated a low impact under the local ecosystems. Fishing, forest extractivism and forest management are activities that allow the agriculturist maintenance in the rural environment and constitute a source of revenue during the dry season. The activities diversification and the integration of different productive systems has been a concrete possibility for income generation and improvement in the life quality of the families in the region. This way, the agroforestry systems of multiple use must be priority in rural development programs for the region sustainability.