The communities of Campo Alegre, Baixo São Marcos and Mangueira ethnoregion, Araçá Indigenous Land, Amajarí region have been working on the construction of nurseries for seedlings of native and exotic plants. The activities were technically monitored by the Agronomist, Renan Rodrigues Macuxi, from the Department of Territorial and Environmental Management (DGTA) of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR).
In the Campo Alegre Indigenous community, the work was carried out on May 5 and 6. The construction of the nursery was carried out by the "Kuinan Productions Group", which in the language of the Macuxi people, "Kuinan" means "leafcutter".
The nursery was built with wood from eucalyptus trees, an exotic plant species, which were planted eight years ago. The size of the nursery measures 12m x 12m in area, height of 2.5 m, covered with shade screen and fenced in an area of 25m x 25m, with galvanized screen. Eucalyptus wood is the result of afforestation in the ploughed area, and it is working due to its rusticity and easy adaptation to the plough.
The Kuinan group has an initiative to cultivate a variety of plants with eucalyptus, such as cassava, cassava, corn, beans, papaya, bananas, passion fruit, coffee, pepper, murici, açaí, gherkin and medicinal herbs, thus forming a small agroforestry system. Therefore, with the technical support of the CIR and partner Rainforest Foundation.
The physical structure will facilitate the production of plant seedlings both as native forest woods, and exotic, in the case of eucalyptus. In addition to increasing the traditional seeds of annual crops, fruit trees, vegetables, fibers and medicinal plants, as well as strengthening the work of firefighters who work in the prevention and direct combat of forest fires and actually encouraging action in the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan (PGTA), in the line of Agroforestry System that promotes Sustainable Agriculture.
In the indigenous community, the work was carried out from May 11 to 13, by the group of indigenous producers of the "Açaí 4 Seasons Association" who met to build the nursery. The dimensioned area of the built nursery is 12 m x 12 m, with a height of 2.3 m.
The Association has the participation of women, young people, men and children in the collective work for the production of seedlings of native fruit plants, considering that the main crop they are implementing is Açaí. The group has already produced 9 thousand seedlings and started planting in the definitive place on 3 hectares with more than 1 thousand seedlings in the field.
They will also grow other species of fruit and vegetables in the same area. But the intention, the açaí fruit will be the flagship of the agricultural products that they will be producing in the future. In addition, they will also produce seedlings of native timber plants for reforestation and recover "Ilhas de Mata", due to the little wood in the region, in addition, they will have to produce seedlings of plants that extract fibers, because in the community, in addition to work in construction, they are interested in rustic handicraft activities, such as the manufacture of rustic furniture in that community.
Professor Elton Tenente thanked the support of the CIR and partners in the construction of nurseries for the production of plant seedlings, because it will facilitate the production of seedlings in summer and winter due to the availability of adequate irrigation for plant seedlings. With this, it will effectively stimulate and strengthen food production and income generation, and an example of sales and exchanges of açaí seedlings that have started and future sales of fruit pulps.