A juta na agricultura de varzea na area de Santarem-medio Amazonas

Abstract

This study treats the transfonnation of Amazon floodplain agriculture near the city of Santerém, Brazil, as the region has been subject to successive waves of modernization and, like the rest of Amazonia, of capitalist expansion. The cultivation of jute (Corchorus capsularis, also called lnctian hemp) is central to the analysis, since thís has served as the principal economic activity in the region and since socio-economic relationships bearing on the present problem stem from jute production (for example, there a1ready was in evidence a tendency for the rural ri verside populations to migrate to the uplands, principally to Santarém, the goldmines of the Tapaj6s River, and the bauxite mines near Oriximiná on the Trombetas River). A serious crisis is seen in jute fanning which can be identified not just with falling jute production beginning in the 1970' s, but also with the adoption by the jute fanner of commercial fishing as a principal economic activity -to the detriment of survival' fishing as a principal economic activity to the detriment of survival fishing, an important actlvlty complementary to jute cultivation and one that is strictly tied to tloodplain tractitions and nature. Among the elements of thís transfonnation, one can cite the changing nature of floodplain cattle ránching, which has left its traditional molds based on patronage to become an industrial activity directed at supplylOg the city's meat demands and, cosequentially, utilizing feeds to supplement grass and evolving new employer-employee relations. The floodplains of Santarém have ceased to be an isolated space, to become integrated with the capitalist sphere in a strict manner, due to the facilities offered by intensified river transport which draws the region eloser to the city of Santarém, and due to the production of agricultural goods for a market economy.