Atividades agrícolas na cidade: a influência da urbanização na produção de hortaliças em Manaus

Abstract

The main objective of this work was to analyze the influence of urban areas for the production of vegetables in the community City of God, located in New Town district, the northern of Manaus. The problem came from the following question: How urbanization is influencing the agricultural production units in the city of Manaus? From there, it was appointed as a hypothesis that urbanization expands on units of agricultural production in Manaus, a fact which is aggravated by the lack of planning by the government to maintain such spaces in the city. The strategy consisted of systematic approach in order to study the proposed topic in its entirety. On the research method, the case study was seen as the most appropriate to arrest the problem. The unit of study was represented by agricultural production units of the community City of God had 10 farmers as subjects. Based on the results, it was found that the production processes of the space it enters the agricultural production units in the context of urban sprawl are population growth in the city of Manaus and new expansion of public roads. Due to the constant human occupation in the vicinity of agricultural areas, there may be reduction of both the production of vegetables, a fact that is harmful to the farmer. Regarding the relationship between farmers and the environment, the activity does not harm the environment despite use of available natural resources, of chemical fertilizers and / or insecticides. Among the environmental resources used, the water stream as it sets used and then are land use, and wood dust collection fruit. Through direct observation were seen following the processes of environmental vulnerability in the Community waterways polluted and silted, exhausted soils, areas of bare soil slopes, erosion and inadequate disposal of solid waste. Faced with environmental problems, farmers know that a degraded environment, causes damage to agricultural production, acting directly on the quality and quantity of vegetables, harvest time of production and occupational health. Linked the difficulties is the lack of assistance by the Government, because the community is replaced by demands for basic infrastructure and urban facilities in general - a fact that interfere with the implementation of agriculture in the area concerned. Moreover, farmers in the city do not have public policies that meet the category. However, considerable portion of respondents believe that agriculture in the city can expand the current urbanization in Manaus, because there would be a greater demand for food on population growth.