Produção de plantas ornamentais : análise das potencialidades, da viabilidade agro-econômica e da sua contribuição ao desenvolvimento de Santa Cruz do Sul - RS.

Abstract

This study restores the essence of some researches and discussions about the rural development in the municipality of Santa Cruz do Sul. The need to guarantee the development of the rural area, especially in relation to family farming, as well as the need to have strategies with this objective is evident with the observation of the situation in the countryside. In this municipality we highlight the predominance of the tobacco culture, aspect that brings up the need to think about viable alternatives, focusing the diversification of cultures by the family farmers. One alternative consists on the production of ornamental plants for landscaping, that is, plants for gardens. This alternative was proposed due to the fact that Rio Grande do Sul State stands out as a consuming center of the country of such plants, however, according to Padula et al. (2003), the local production does not attend all the demands of the state. The agro-economic viability of this production as well as the contribution to the development of the family farming in the municipality of Santa Cruz do Sul are the vital aspects of this dissertation. Departing from a case study of the producer pole that is consolidated, that is, the regional pole of São Sebastião do Caí, we observed the pros and cons of the cultivation, and verified that it is a viable activity to be implanted in the municipality by the family farmers that are willing to replace or diversify their tobacco production.