São Paulo – The Northeastern semiarid is starting commercial production of pears and apples, fruit typical of cold climates. This information was disclosed by a spokesperson for the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Semiarid, in Petrolina, in the interior of the state of Pernambuco. The institution is researching the development of cultures of the semiarid.
The studies are part of project "Introduction and evaluation of alternative crops for irrigated areas in the Brazilian semiarid". It is being developed by the Embrapa in partnership with the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valley Development Company (Codevasf). In Bahia and Pernambuco, this year cultivation should reach 30,000 hectares of irrigated land. There should also be smaller areas in Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe.
Agronomist Paulo Roberto Coelho Lopes, an Embrapa researcher, said that diversifying cultivation options in the region is an intelligent strategy to reach the market with the offer of several different fruit at different times of the year.
The Northeastern semiarid already cultivates several kinds of fruit. The grape crops, for example, may reach 2.5 a year. In the São Francisco River Valley there area around 12,000 hectares of the fruit. The region is also prominent for grape farming.
Agronomist Lopes believes that pears and apples may become important fruit for the agriculture of the country. According to him, the tests in experimental areas have presented good results. Both pears and apples are fruit with great market potential, said Lopes.
Among the temperate climate fruit, pears are the third most consumed and most imported by Brazil. National production answers to less than 10% of the total consumed in the country. The cultivated areas are concentrated in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and São Paulo. Apple cultivation is recent in Brazil.
*Translated by Mark Ament
