AGROECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT IN DIVERSIFIED AGROECOSYSTEMS IN BREJO AND CARIRI OF THE PARAÍBA

Abstract

Agroecosystems are systems that try to imitate natural ecosystems; and agroecological management consists of a set of practices for this purpose. The objective of this research was to study the soil fertility and mineral nutrition of smallholder farms submitted to agroecological management in four municipalities of the Brazilian semi-arid region, two in Brejo (Arara and Remígio) and two in Cariri (Sumé and Prata) of the Paraíba. In each of these municipalities were studied two properties that had in common the fact of being small, use family labor and practices of organic agriculture, an agriculture of the agroecological type. The crops studied were corn, beans, cotton, fababean, cassava and pumpkin. The main results were: the soil pH is slightly below the range considered suitable for the most crops; MO is still somewhat low, and sustainable practices should continue to be used to increase it; leaf content of N was considered adequate for cotton, pumpkim, fababean and cassava, and low for maize and beans; P levels in the leaves were considered low, although their soil content was good; those of K were considered good only for pumpkim and cassava, so their soil content was good; the contents of Ca were quite variable: low for beans, fababean and cassava; suitable in the pumpkim; and high for cotton and corn; the contents of Mg and S followed the same trend of Ca; Al levels in the soil solution were not considered to be toxic.