Cadeia produtiva da bubalinocultura no município de Vitória do Mearim – MA

Abstract

Buffalo farming is a livestock activity that has grown throughout Brazil in recent decades. Everything is used from the animal, but the appreciation of milk by-products is growing. In

Maranhão, the largest number of buffaloes is concentrated in the Baixada Maranhense micro- region and, for the most part, raised in the marshy fields. This work aimed to characterize

each link and describe the organizational environment and institutional environment in the buffalo production chain in Vitória do Mearim - MA. Primary and secondary data were used, and to obtain the primary data, questionnaires were applied to producers, consumers and retailers. Secondary data, on the other hand, were obtained through a bibliographic review carried out in scientific works, monographs, books, as well as data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), State Agency for Agricultural Defense of Maranhão (AGED) and secretariats of the City Hall. The results show that the municipality has a herd of 4,091 animals and 96 producers. The activity takes place in an extensive, rustic way, and the local market absorbs the production of meat, milk and its derivatives manufactured by hand. The main production bottlenecks are the lack of infrastructure on the roads that provide access to rural establishments, lack of technical assistance, lack of labor and difficulty in accessing financing. Consumers demonstrate good acceptance of products of buffalo origin, knowing how to differentiate them from products of bovine origin. Thus, buffalo production has been promising, taking into account that the products generated in the activity are consumed in the local market and that overcoming bottlenecks can make this production chain grow, generate employment and income, thus promoting local development and regional