Efeito da precipitação de chuvas na evolução da produção de alimentos no Ceará: desdobramento por períodos históricos recentes

Abstract

In this paper we tried to measure the family agriculture evolution in Ceará State of Brazil from 1947 to 2008. We evaluated the evolution of areas, production, yield and prices of rice, bean, cassava and corn. The production of these crops is aggregated in this stud in order to obtain the annual time series of daily production per person. The time series of production value was decomposed in three effects: area, price and rain precipitation. These time series also are divided in three historical periods: “The Immediately Post War Period” (1947-1963); the “Period Under Military Influence” (1964-1985) and the “Period After Military Influence” (1986-2008). The data come from IBGE and FUNCEME (Meteorological Foundation of Ceará State). The stud also showed the great instability of rain fall in this State. As a matter of fact in 64% of the times series analyzed, the rain precipitation was under its historical average. This instability in weather is transferred to the food production in Ceará State because there are no advanced technologies to use in these crop productions under such circumstances. The results showed that the worse period for the food production in Ceará was during the Military Influence.