Environment and Agroecosystems

• Brasil is a very big country. Do to where Urucu prevails, I chose to analyse the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. It is South Eastern Brasil and shares a border with Bolivia. 

          Here the climate is quite stable throughout the whole year, with an average temperature of 26.5 celsius. With a minimum of 25 and a max of 30.

          In mato Grosso do sul what varies allot is the rainfall. Sustantial rainfall starts falling from january up to june, and from there onward there is essentially no rainfall. October is considered to be the month with the least rainfall with an average rainfall of 3 mm and March is the month with the most rainfall with and average of 205 mm. 

• Since Uruku is originally from this area. It has been adapted throughout thousands of years to produce in this climate. due to this most plantations are simply rainfed and left in the open. Apart from the urucu's adaptation advantge to this area, the lack of irrigation is also due to the lack of financial means to install a good system. 

• Urucu plantations produce best with temperatures ranging from 22 to 27 degrees celsius. looking into the future, with what is expected with global warming. Temperatures in this areas of the world will rise creating a problem to the Urucu plantations due to excessive heat. In my opinion this will be the biggest problem regarding the urucu plantations.

• Urucu is mostly grown in mocultures. It is mostly found in extensive plantations, or small holders plantations. There is verry little integration of urucu plantations with other plants or animals at the moment.

• The urucu production is not 100 % sustainable but it is a already an advantage that it is a perenial. What definetally can be done to have extremely sustainable plantations of urucu is a design of plantations in an Agroforestry system which will be able to return and bring new biodiversity to the area. Like this you can have a more circular economy view to the plantation and you are contributing to many other markets. 

• To promote Carbon Sequestration, I would create urucu plantations in junction with timber trees to be able to sequestrate carbon in a more cyclical way. Like this not only am I contributing to a more sustainable industry but also to the world problem of excessive carbon. In this plantation there will be trees and plants varying in growth time and cycles to create a varied and diverse system. 

References

Achiote. (2015). Retrieved October 4, 2019, from Biodiversidad.gob.mx website: https://www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/usos/alimentacion/achiote.html

Clima Mato Grosso: Temperatura, Tempo e Dados climatológicos Mato Grosso - Climate-Data.org. (2019). Retrieved from Climate-data.org website: https://pt.climate-data.org/america-do-sul/brasil/paraiba/mato-grosso-312282/

Souza, G., & Filho, F. (n.d.). CULTIVO DE URUCUM SISTEMA DE PRODUÇÃO. Retrieved from http://www.emater.ro.gov.br/ematerro/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CARTILHA-CULTIVO-DE-URUCUM.pdf

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