Comparação do rendimento da mandioca (Manihot esculenta crantz) em sistemas de roça com fogo e sem fogo no território quilombola de Alcântara, Maranhão, Brasil /

Abstract

In Alcântara, Maranhão, the municipality has the following geographic coordinates: (02º 24' 32" S and 44º 24' 53" W) as well as, throughout the Amazon, the roça with fire is the main way for family farmers to cultivate the land . Recent studies indicate that the intensification of cultivation with fire has produced harmful impacts on the environment and on the health of rural workers. Thus, as an alternative to reduce impacts and guarantee livelihoods, the fireless garden has gained notoriety for having advantages over the soil, such as greater retention of organic matter, reduced erosion and soil degradation, increased fertility and improvement of their physicochemical conditions. The objective of this work was to compare the yield of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in systems of fireless garden (RSF) and forest with fire (RCF) of the following Quilombola communities: Peru, Pepital, Santa Maria and Espera, located in the municipality of Alcântara , Maranhão (Latitude: 2° 23' 51'' South, Longitude: 44° 24' 16'' West). The selection of communities was carried out with the support of the Agroforestry network of Alcântara - Rede SAFAL, which has existed for over a decade. The selection of participating farmers was based on the <snowball= methodology, which consisted of nominations made by the farmers themselves. The selection criteria were: farmers of legal age who practice or not the analyzed systems. A total of 18 swiddens were evaluated, of which: 5 swiddens practiced the technique of swidden without fire and 13 swiddens with fire (Peru, number(n)= 1; Pepital, n=2; Santa Maria, n=12 and Espera, n =3). In each swidden, 5 points with dimensions of 1m2 were randomly selected; where the following variables were evaluated: number of plants m², number of roots, plant, root length, plant height, shoot weight and root weight. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, the parametric test known as Student's t test, and principal component analysis were used. The RCF showed the highest density of plants/m² (mean and deviation). The other quantified variables always had a higher mean in the RSF. The average yield/plant was higher in RSF and showed a significant difference by Student's test (p< 0.05), (RCF = 1.5kg/plant; RSF=2.5kg/plant). The results concluded that the RSF is more productive than the RCF