CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO CULTIVO E CONSERVAÇÃO DA AGROBIODIVERSIDADE EM LOTES URBANOS VAGOS EM DUAS PEQUENAS CIDADES NO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is a growing worldwide phenomenon and brings a range of benefits, such as ensuring food and nutrition security, income generation and the possibility of on-farm biodiversity conservation. In Brazil, many towns still have rural characteristics, such as unoccupied interstitial spaces, allowing former residents of rural areas to maintain their habit of planting. The objective of this study was to describe the urban agriculture practiced in vacant lots in two cities in the interior of Sao Paulo - Charqueada (CH) and Santa Gertrudes (SG). In this sense, we addressed the following aspects: i) socioeconomic characterization of the interviewees; ii) characterization of lots in terms of ownership, cultivation time and agricultural management; iii) inventory of plants and cultivated varieties - with emphasis on roots and tubers - in order to assess the potential for agrobiodiversity conservation in these spaces. All cultivated plots in the urban area were georeferenced, for the establishment of a general sample (77 in CH and 43 in SG) for the characterization of the population regarding socioeconomic and agricultural aspects. Afterwards, a sub-sample (30 in CH and 20 in SG) was selected for the inventory of cultivated plants. The surveys were conducted through structured and semi-structured interviews, using the guided tour in the lots for the plant survey. Farmers are mostly men (more than 80%) over 50 (70%), with low formal education and income; there is no effective participation of young people. Immigrants from other states are present, mostly northeasterners in CH and mineiros (from the state of Minas Gerais) in SG. One hundred and two ethnospecies of cultivated plants, mainly food, were recorded, being the most frequent (> 40% of the lots in both cities) manioc, papaya and okra. A number of crops presented ethnovarieties, but farmers' knowledge about them is not very thorough. The agrobiodiversity found shows the potential of urban agriculture for on-farm conservation, but the lack of interest of the young people and the urban pressures for land occupation may make it difficult to continue. There is a need to raise awareness of the population in general about the role and importance of conservation of agricultural diversity as well as pu