Variação intraespecífica, conhecimento e manejo local de mandioca, Manihot esculenta Crantz, no semiárido de Pernambuco, Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Small-scale farmers who practice traditional agriculture fields have an important role in generation, maintenance and conservation of local agrobiodiversity. Among the most cultivated species, the Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava), in its intrespecific diversity, is one of the moust important agricultural resources of economic importance and livelihood for many local people in the world. It is believed that the management practices dedicated to the cultivation of cassava, associated with the knowledge of farmers, result in increased intraspecific diversity, and the conservation of this diversity. Therefore, the research aimed to understand the processes involved in the dynamics of agricultural diversity of cassava, through access the knowledge of farmers as the management of practices and understand what factors may be related to the generation and maintenance of local diversity. For this, the study was developed with the traditional farmers of seven rural communities located in the semiarid region of the state of Pernambuco. The methodological approach was based on semi-structured interviews, conversations with informants and visits to fields, to characterize and understand the importance of management of dry framing and social networks established between farmers and to identify the cassava varieties currently grown. From the knowledge of managed diversity, we analyze the structure of social interaction network formed by the exchange of landraces among farmers. From this information, We discussed the important role of farmers in the overall regional landraces maintenance. A total of 22 landraces were cited, which are identified by farmers, mainly through seven morphological characters. The structure of varieties sharing networks favors the maintenance and amplification of different local varieties.