A DINÂMICA AGROPECUÁRIA DO SERIDÓ POTIGUAR: CONTINUIDADES E DESCONTINUIDADES DO ESPAÇO PRODUTIVO

Abstract

The agrarian question of Seridó Potiguar is dynamic, plural, and a historical-social product of power relations, where the land is the main asset used by social agents who reproduce productive space in the countryside. From this perspective, the main objective of this work is to analyze the productive scenario of agriculture in Seridó over a period of 30 years (1990–2020), enumerating the productive indices of agriculture in terms of planted area and quantity produced, and livestock in terms of number of herds and animal production. From the analysis of data collected by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), it was observed that agricultural production in Seridó has little expression, being predominantly seasonal with an emphasis on corn, beans, and cassava, for which the largest planted areas are concentrated in the municipalities of Serra de Santana. Furthermore, when it comes to livestock, there is an important bovine production that is predominant in the region, reflecting the important dairy production carried out mainly in Caicó and Jucurutu. Highlighting the panorama of agriculture in Seridó, we find ourselves with activities that are at different levels of importance, given that while agriculture is going through a process of marginalization, farming resumes its ascending role in the dynamism of the productive space of Seridó.