Análise Espacial Multicritérios (AHP) como ferramenta para expansão da cacauicultura (Theobroma cacao) no município de Mocajuba, Pará.

Abstract

The legal Amazon has a diverse potential of use, due to its great wealth both biotic and abiotic. The state of Pará stands out mainly for the cultivation of fruit, cereals and agriculture, being characterized as the new agricultural border of the country. Among these crops the cocoa, Theobroma cacao L., presents itself as a commodity of international importance, with great potential for expansion in the foreign and domestic market. In the municipality of Mocajuba, located in the region of the Lower Tocantins, cocoa is more than just a fruit of economic value, and is tied to socio-cultural factors. However, although there is a great economic potential, Brazil is still unable to meet the demands of the cocoa market. Geotechnologies are great tools for analyzing the state of environments, and can be used in the planning, implementation and expansion of agricultural areas. The Hierarchical Analysis Process (AHP) is a methodology that aims to make decision-making processes more assertive when you have multiple criteria and solutions not so clear, hierarchizing the importance of criteria through the allocation of weights. In this way, the objective of the work was to carry out the mapping of potential areas for the cultivation of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) in the municipality of Mocajuba-Pará, through the methodology of Multicriteria Analysis according to the Method of Hierarchical Analytical Process (AHP) and techniques of Geoprocessing. To the proposed objective, quantitative and qualitative criteria were selected that would influence the identification of suitable areas, they are: Declividad, Roads, Hydrography, Pedology, Geology and Usage and occupation. For each criterion subcriteria were created where pairs of comparisons were made in order to assign the weights. Subsequently thematic maps and calculations were made to generate the final map using the QGIS 3.22 software. The areas with excellent fitness occupied an area of 8,304 hectares, representing 9.5% of the municipality, being the class corresponding to the ideal areas for the expansion of cocoa. The areas classified as good fitness were the largest in the municipality with 25.670 hectares and 29.4%. The unfit areas were of only 9,629 hectares with a share of 11% of the municipality. In this way, the AHP methodology combined with geoprocessing techniques proved efficient in the process of expanding the cocoa cultivation in the municipality, achieving the mapping of the suitable areas.