Impacto da seca nas perdas produtivas das principais lavouras de sequeiro do estado Ceará

Abstract

The state of Ceará has about 92 % of its territory under the influence of semi-arid characteristics. In addition to the vulnerability caused by irregular rainfall in the semiarid region , the soils in this region still have an advanced stage of degradation. These edaphics and climatic characteristics , coupled with the inefficiency of the management of water resources , have brought about serious economic , social and environmental impacts in many rural activities , one of which agricultural production. Thus, the current research is to analyze the behavior of productive losses of the main rainfed crops in the state of Ceará, facing a drought as compared to a non- dry years history. Thus, indicators were selected that show the performance of bean , cassava and corn in the years of drought and normal rainfall as the rainfall state data. The study was conducted for the municipalities of Ceará that are inserted in the semiarid region and the period considered for the evaluation was 1994-2014 . The main results show that the three crops studied, corn suffered the increased production losses, followed bean and manioc , as each culture differs from each other with respect to the physiological behavior which causes the same to develop different abilities to tolerate drought. It is believed that this research can serve as a basis for decision-makers to develop public policies that seek ways to live with dry, so that the losses in agriculture are the least possible.