Economic Analysis of Production Systems of Small Farmers that Adopt “Bacurizeiro” Management in Pará State, Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Platonia insignis Mart., known as “bacurizeiro”, is a medium to large tree species whose fruit (called “bacuri”), wood and energy are used for many purposes. Its origin center is in the Eastern Amazon. This paper carries out an economic analysis of the production systems management performed by small producers that manage bacurizeiro in natural occurrence areas in Brazilian Amazon, highlighting aspects of their importance for the social reproduction strategy of small farmers. The management is understood as an improving process of the simple extractivism of collect, seeking to increase the land and labor productivity, increasing the density or creating more favorable conditions for bacurizeiro. In order to perform the field survey, an intentional sampling was chosen, considering only the small farmers who had bacurizeiro in their establishments and who commercialized their products to limited degree. A total of 77 questionnaires were applied among the 7 assessed municipalities, which 57 were in the Northeastern Para Mesoregion and 20 in Marajó, conducted from November 2016 to March 2017. A typology of production systems was carried out, where four types were found: bacurizeiro and small farming, bacurizeiro and fruit orchard, bacurizeiro and fishing and bacurizeiro and social security. It was found that the production systems with the highest degree of species diversification possess the highest potential of income generation besides the highest agricultural income and the highest small farmers income. Those are the production systems belonging to bacurizeiro and fruit orchard (T2). Bacurizeiro significantly contributes to all types of production systems found, representing a minimum average participation in agricultural income of 19.99% (bacurizeiro and fishing). The sale of fruits and pulp of represents an essential social reproduction strategy to small producers in Northeastern of Pará and in Marajó.