Agricultura urbana e conservacao da agrobiodiversidade: um estudo de caso em Mato Grosso, Brasil

It is commonfor residents of small cities, who are often of rural origin, to grow food plants in urban and peri-urban areas, an activitythat can contribute to plant species conservation. An ethnobotanical study was conducted of this phenomenon in fiveperipheral neighborhoods of the town of Santo Antônio do Leverger, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. A survey of 135 randomly-selected households was carried out to characterize the frequency of food plants, and a more detailed ethnobotanicalstudy was done in 30 households. Descriptive analyses and analyses of similarity and ordination were conducted. Ninety-seven species from 38 botanical families were identified, cultivated in three types of areas: homegardens and fields,which have different and complementary floristic structure and composition; and empty lots, which are intermediarybetween the other two. While some species are common to the majority of households studied, the similarity between thesets of species/varieties is, in general, below 50%; besides, many of them have low frequency. On the one hand, thisillustrates the different contributions of each household to the total; on the other hand, it also reveals the vulnerability toloss of species/varieties, which is partially avoided through their circulation in the social network. Since many cities inBrazil have characteristics similar to the one studied, their potential for maintaining agro-biodiversity should be takeninto consideration. ; Habitantes de cidades de pequeno porte, muitos deles oriundos de áreas rurais, comumente cultivam plantasalimentares nas zonas urbana e periurbana, podendo contribuir para a conservação da agrobiodiversidade. Este estudoteve o objetivo de investigar esta questão a partir de uma perspectiva etnobotânica. Cinco bairros periféricos da cidade deSanto Antônio do Leverger, em Mato Grosso, foram selecionados. Foi feita uma listagem geral de plantas alimentarescultivadas em 135 unidades domésticas selecionadas aleatoriamente; em 30, foi feito um levantamento etnobotânicopormenorizado. ...