Variações climáticas e produção de leite no Ceará entre 1973 e 2017

Abstract

Milk production in the State of Ceará takes place even in a region that is affected by climatic variations which is the predominant climate in the semiarid zone. The twenty largest milk production municipalities are located in different areas in the State of Ceará, with the dairy activity being present throughout the state, but few of them stand up in this activity. This study compares the rainfall that happened in Ceará and in the twenty largest milk producing municipalities between the years 1973 and 2019. It was verified if the rainfalls of the state and the municipalities should be classified in periods of drought, normality and rainy. Statistical methods have been developed to verify if there were cause-effect relationship between rainfalls and the number of lactating cows, daily production of milk per lactating cow, and over the prices received per liter by milk producers, in Ceará and in the twenty largest milk producing municipalities in those years. The variables were analyzed according to their coefficients of variation (CV), average and standard deviation. Data were collected from municipal livestock research (PPM / IBGE) and from Funceme. The results obtained show that the rainfall of the state and the twenty municipalities can be classified according to the rainy periods. It was also possible to verify in the state and in the municipalities, as well, there was a higher frequency of periods of drought. The conclusion of the study shows that rainfall instabilities also caused instabilities over the other variables observed in relation to milk production in Ceará and in the twenty largest Ceará producing municipalities between 1973 and 2019.