Conhecimento dos produtores, percepção e uso de práticas de manejo de doenças da cultura do feijoeiro no Agreste de Pernambuco

Abstract

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are considered a staple food in several regions of the world. In Brazil, this food is widely consumed, being grown in practically all regions. In the Agreste of Pernambuco, beans stand out as one of the main sources of income, contributing to the socioeconomic development of this region. In general, bean cultivation is done by small producers, in properties that use only family labor, with little technical knowledge and without the aid of technologies, which results in low crop yields. The objective of this work was to investigate the knowledge of the producers, their perception and the use of management practices of bean diseases in Pernambuco. To obtain the data, questionnaires were applied to 101 producers in ten municipalities of the Southern and Central Agreste that are part of the productive pole of the Agreste of Pernambuco. It was observed that the producers of the region have difficulty in identifying diseases. Despite this, the white mold disease, caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, was detected by about 80% of the producers and considered as very important by more than 40% of the interviewees. It has also been shown that producers do not use management practices. None of the interviewees stated that they apply fungicides in the field and only 11.9% perform the seed treatment before planting. Both bean producers and the interviewed technicians indicated that white mold and anthracnose are the most important diseases of the crop. However,the producers ignored diseases of major importance, such as rhizoctoniosis. With this work we can conclude that the producers of the productive pole of beans of the Agreste of Pernambuco need training so that they can diagnose the diseases and use agricultural practices that help to improve the production of the region.