Demanda de água em sistemas de produção agrícola e seus impactos: ambientais e financeiros

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the agricultural production systems used by small farmers in rainfed and irrigated areas and also to identify the water productivity. The explored irrigated agricultural field was the Curupati irrigated perimeter, located in Jaguaribara, Ceará, Brazil. The rainfed system (tillage) was implanted in the Chapada do Apodi region, sited in Tabuleiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil. The quantification of the water required to supply the irrigated crops was quantified through the flow rate of drippers. Also, the moisture of the soil profile was evaluated until the depth of 120 cm. The total of applied water in the irrigated field was 2,663,296.20 m3. The studied crop was papaya, although the guava crop was also explored. In the rainfed crop using tillage, the field was a 137 ha with the sorghum culture. The supplying water was quantified by rain gate implemented and monitored throughout the rainy season of 2008. The total rainfall during the cycle of the culture was 940 mm. The productivity for the cultivation of papaya ranged from 80 ton ha -1 to 106 ton ha -1 during the it’s productivity period. It was identified that for every 1 kg of papaya produced, 1,042 m3 of water was consumed, expressing a 0.95 kg m3 yield. In the rainfed area, the productivity of sorghum ranged from 438 kg ha-1 to 2,143 kg ha-1. Due to the fact that the total rainfall depth in 2008 was 27.4% higher than the annual average of the region, it was not possible to evaluate the water productivity in the tillage system, since the total rainfall depth was 280% higher than the required by the culture.