Zonal Patterns of Agricultural Land Use in the State of Paraiba, Northeast Brazil

Geographical Review of Japan Vol. 60 (Ser. B), No. 1, 66-82, 1987 Zonal Patterns of Agricultural Land Use in the State of Paraiba, Northeast Brazil Isao SAITW* and Noritaka YAGASAKI** Although Northeast Brazil has been recognized as being constituted by three distinct zones, the coastal sugar cane zone (zona da mata), the semiarid inland cattle country (sertao), and the transi tional zone between them (agreste), their demarcation and the criteria for classification have not always been clear. The present study attempts to visualize the zonal pattern of land use and to propose a quantitative regionalization of the cultural landscape in the state of Paraiba, Northeast Brazil. Along a 270 kilometer belt from the Atlantic coast to Patos, the land use of one square kilometer plots was intensively surveyed at five-kilometer intervals near the coast and ten-kilometer intervals inland. Our analyses suggest that the agricultural land use pattern in the state of Paraiba is composed of eight distinct regions. Three regions are identified near the coast, the urbanized region, the sugar cane cultivation region, and the root crop producing region. The agyeste, charac terized by cattle raising and maize cultivation, is made up of the depression zone-parkland pasture region, the orographic rain-savanna pasture region, and the dense caatinga region. The sertao, where extensive grazing in sparse caatinga is the dominant form of livelihood, consists of the Bor borema Plateau and the Patos Basin. These regional divisions, identified by our field survey, were verified by analyses of statistical data on livestock and cultivated crops by municzio as well as by observations of roadside sales of agricultural commodities by peasants. based on his field survey and statistical anal I. Introduction ysis. ANDRADE(1980, p. 9), a foremost scholar of the region, has defined the zona da mata as In Northeast Brazil the declining precipita the traditional sugar cane region with high tion from the seaboard to the inland brings temperatures and humidity, the sertdo as a about striking contrasts between the humid hot and arid cattle country with frequent tropical coast and the semiarid backcountry. drought, and the agyeste as having small Such differences in natural environment are holdings and mixed farming. According to manifest in agricultural activities and land WEBB (1974, pp. 10-12), the zona da mata use. Being students of cultural landscapes receives precipitation of more than 1,200 milli and human uses of the earth, geographers have meters so that tall evergreen and semi-decidu studied Northeast Brazil and suggested that ous arbores flourish, while the sertdo has thorn it consists of three regions: the coastal region scrub vegetation called caatinga with annual (zona da mat a), the semiarid backcountry rainfall of 270 to 800 millimeters. The agyeste, (sertdo), and the transitional zone between located between them, has rainfall of 800 to them (agyeste). 1,200 millimeters, thus providing favorable Although these regional divisions have been environment for tubers such as manioc, an commonly accepted, they have lacked clear important staple food crop in the Northeast. definitions. Demarcation of their boundaries WEBB'Sdefinition of the zona da mata is nar and the criteria for classification have not al rower and more restricted to the coast than ways been clear. JAMES(1953) outlined the that of ANDRADE. general features of land use in the Northeast The state of Paraiba provides an excellent * Institute of Geoscience , The University of Tsukuba, Sakuramura, Ibaraki 305, Japan. ** Department of Geography , Yokohama National University, Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240, Japan. Agricultural Land Use in the State of Paraiba 67 field for studying the relationship between land to identify criteria capable of quantitative use and natural environment, for the zona da measurement for regionalizing the landscape. mata, agreste, and sertdo are clearly differen It also attempts to propose quantitatively tiated there within a short distance of the based regional divisions. For this purpose, coast. This may be the reason why Japanese an intensive field survey was undertaken in geographers at the University of Tsukuba July and August of 1984 in the state of Paraiba (formerly Tokyo Kyoiku University) have from the municI io of Joao Pessoa on the actively studied Paraiba's environment and Atlantic coast to the interior municI io of land use on six different occasions since 1966/ Patos. A supplementary field investigation 67. HAYASHIand NUMATA(1976) defined the was conducted in 1986. zona da mata, agreste, and sertao by examining The study area extends across some 270 the genral vegetation cover, indicator plants, kilometers from Cabo Branco to Patos. Land cultivated crops, and density of acude (arti use was surveyed in plots of one square kilo ficial ponds) for 250 kilometers inland along meter every ten kilometers along the survey national highway BR-230 from Cabedelo on the route (Figure 1). In the coastal region where coast. Their definition is more restrictive topographic maps at a scale of 1:25,000 were than that of WEBB, for the indicator plants available, the field surveys were conducted used in the classification, including inbauba every five kilometers. In and around Campina (Cecropia painata), are generally found neither Grande, where topographic maps at scales on farmland nor on pasture but only in forest. of 1:25,000 and 1:100,000 were not published, MACHIDA(1976), who also examined annual distance markers on national highway BR precipitation, evapotranspiration, and topo 230 were used to locate plots at 12 kilometer graphy in his regionalization of the natural intervals along the curving road between environment, agreed with HAYASHI and Salgado de Sao Inez and Sitio Mumbuca, 70 NUMATAin defining the three regional divisions. and 130 kilometers from the coast respectively. YAMAMOTO(1975), on the other hand, studied A detailed land use map was drawn for every the socioeconomic integration of the sugar one square kilometer plot based on field ob economy of the zona da mata, the peasant food servations. Five dominant land use types producing economy of the agreste, and the were recorded and plants such as sisal and livestock economy of the sertdo with a focus fruit trees and types of fences were noted. on the usinas, or modern sugar factories, of Livestock and crop production patterns were the coastal region. These contributions by then analyzed employing 1980 agricultural Japanese geographers are qualitative rather census data (IBGE, 1983). Furthermore, direct than quantitative in attempting regionaliza sales of farm produce along the roadside were tions. examined on the assumption that such com The present study investigates the pattern mercial activities reflect the regionality of of land use in Northeast Brazil in an attempt agricultural production. Fag. 1 Survey route and locations in the state of Paraiba . 68 I. SAITO and N. YAGASAKI Joao Pessoa's urbanization (RODOLIGUEZand II. East-west differences in land use DROULERS,1981). The pasture which appears in each location is mostly devastated and there fore can be viewed as social fallow awaiting 1. Coastal region a rise in land values (SINcLAIR,1967). 1) Vicinityof Jobo Pessoa: Location O, facing 2) Sugar cane and root crop region: Sugar cane, the Atlantic Ocean, is just west of Cabo Branco, the single most important commercial crop of the easternmost part of the South American the coastal region, appears in the location 2. continent. Here tabuleiyos, low coastal table The sugar cane fields are mainly in the southern lands, have 30 meter high cliffs overlooking part of the section, while capoeira type pasture the ocean and support small landholdings of predominates over the north. Manioc is wide capoeira type pasture with a few kitchen ly cultivated in the valley of Riacho Tibiri gardens. Capoeira is a term that refers to a which dissects the tabuleiro surface. This secondary growth forest. Sited in the eastern location appears to have a transitional land part of Joao Pessoa, the capital city of Paraiba scape between the urbanized area and a sugar with the population of some 330,000, this cane region further inland. location, with a large housing development Locations 2.5 and 3 are characterized by a nearby, will become an upper class residential monoculture of sugar cane, though its area district on the coast in the near future. is surpassed by forest (mata and capoeira). Location 0.5, five kilometers from the ocean, While the tabuleiro surface was entirely covered is just west of the Federal University of with tropical forest in 1970/71 (Figure 2-a), Paraiba. Faculty and public housing and the forest was cut, excepting in a forest reserve other housing land accounts for some 30 around Acude dos Reis, and replaced partly percent of its total land use. Although an by sugar cane, particularly along the road urbanized part of Joao Pessoa, a reserved (Figure 2-b). An area of capoeira (secondary forest dominates the area. Location 1, 10 forest) appears likely to be changed to sugar kilometers from the ocean, encompasses the cane fields in the near future. The recent land junction of Joao Pessoa's loop road and the use transition from forest to capoeira and then Recife-Joao Pessoa highway (BR-101). It has to sugar cane has been largely promoted on residential and industrial land, but a large the tabuleiros by the Brazilian government's acude occupies the largest area. Coconut program to produce alcohol (PROALCOL) palms reflect the coastal character of this area. mainly for automobile fuel. Location 1.5, situated east of the Joao Pessoa Sugar cane ranks first in the land use of airport, is dominated by housing development, locations 3.5 through 5.5. The present sugar but pasture and capoeira wasteland are also cane region is considered to be the western important landscape features.

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