Estudo de caso do cultivo de acerola em Maranguape, Ceará

Abstract

The acerola cherry (Malphighia punifolia L.) is a fruit species with excellent nutritional and agronomic potential, being widely spread in the nation's states. It assumes a social and economic role because its cultivation is an activity that generates income and jobs for rural men all year round. In Brazil, culture stands out in fruit production in the Northeast region, with the state of Ceará being the second largest producer in the country. Among its producing regions, the city of Maranguape has the most expressive production. Thus, the study aims, in general, to evaluate the production of acerola in the municipality of Maranguape, characterizing its particularities, evaluating its potentialities and comparing the behavior of its variations over the years in the region. To obtain such answers, data from the latest Agricultural Census (IBGE), the municipal profile (IPECE), the historical series of prices and volumes traded at wholesale level (CEASA - Maracanaú) were used, corrected based on the month of december 2019 by the IGP-DI/FGV and technical field reports on municipal agricultural production (SEAGRI / EMATER-CE - Maranguape). The results obtained show that Maranguape has great potential in its acerola production chain, but there is a need for improvements to the greatest benefit of all involved in this process.