Emater encourages cocoa production in Itaituba
The agency promotes training for small farmers on cocoa planting
In Itaituba, in the Tapajós Integration Region, with the support of the Local Office of the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of the State of Pará (Emater), farmer João Rufino, 54, is preparing to plant four thousand cocoa trees on four hectares, within Recanto Roma, along the Mamuru River, in the Nova Fronteira community, on the Degredo Road, starting from km 25 of the Farturão Road.
The main goal is to generate income. "According to my accounting here, cocoa is a highly profitable proposal and, more importantly, sustainable in terms of the environment. Considering the reality of family farming in our municipality, I say that cocoa is much more advantageous than livestock, because the same productivity with cocoa requires much less area and represents much less predatory risk to ecosystems,” says the president of the Rural Producers Association of the Nova Fronteira Community.
In addition to cocoa, Rufino is also working on the establishment of three thousand annatto plants for the production of colorau, and 700 pepper plants. The family also has a tradition of selling fried “chifrun” bananas and buriti sweets.
According to the regional supervisor of Emater in Tapajós, agronomist Ubiratan Pina, a specialist in Environmental Engineering, the diversification of activities on family farming properties is one of the strategies employed by Emater in Itaituba: “It is an understanding of dynamizing the agricultural sector, with results in job and income generation, food and nutritional security, and socioeconomic movement with direct and indirect returns for rural families,” he explains.
The most prominent productions are horticulture, such as green onions and kale; fruit farming, such as bananas and oranges; and beef cattle farming.
Training - João Rufino and 19 other farmers participated, this Tuesday (21), in a workshop on cocoa pruning, an event organized by the local and regional offices of Emater, with the support of the city hall, and taught by agricultural technician Edimilson Pereira, head of the Local Office of Emater in Placas.
The training, at the Guajará Farm of farmer Waldecir Barbosa, in the Bom Jesus do Guajará community, updated, in a scientific manner, the theories and practices regarding cocoa planting. “There are several types of pruning: formation pruning, compulsion pruning, cleaning, and lowering. All these prunings are essential for cocoa, from the formation to structure the plant. You can shape the plant the way you want, as necessary, up to the conduction pruning, which is to guide the height, space, and there is production pruning: production pruning must be done every year - whether it is more drastic or more gentle. Without pruning, cocoa production is low. Pruning encourages the plant to produce and reproduce, through the stress mechanism,” summarizes Pereira.
For João Rufino, every new knowledge is valuable. “We saw, talked, and heard everything about cocoa: how to plant, how to prune, how to clone. Cocoa is a tool of dignity, you know? If it is a service that generates profit, it doesn’t let us leave the farm, and life in the countryside is of another quality: a peaceful, healthy life, close to and with nature. Everyone wins,” he reports.
Text: Aline Miranda (Emater)
