Reconfiguring Agrobiodiversity in the Amazon Estuary: Market Integration, the Açaí Trade and Smallholders’ Management Practices in Amapá, Brazil

Abstract

An established body of literature documents current changes in rural livelihoods, agricultural practices, and agrobiodiversity patterns in smallholder communities across the globe. Contributing to this literature, this paper documents change in agricultural practices and agrobiodiversity patterns in a tidal floodplain settlement in Amapa, Brazil, where in recent years farmers increasingly devote their attention to the production of acai fruits, an important regional crop with strong local, national and international markets. Research results indicate that farmers are abandoning subsistence production in annual fields to make room for acai-dominated agroforests. At the same time, farmers are diversifying home gardens, and as a result conserve a portion of the crop diversity once maintained in annual fields in these areas. Agrobiodiversity documented in home gardens is much higher than previously recorded in the study area, and is equal or higher than previously reported in home gardens in other less-market integrated Amazonian communities. Research points to the need for innovative methods to document agrobiodiversity patterns in today’s modifying landscapes and for the historical analysis of such patterns to avoid presumptions that observed changes are unilateral and unidirectional.