This work aimed to identify the sustainability indicators of the producers in the river Faé, Ceará, watershed. The field analysis was carried out in September 2006, with the application of cross-over forms to the 237 small producers. Through the employment of the Factor Analysis/Principal Component Analysis AF/ACP it was identified that the model of better adjustment to express the sustainability of the watershed Faé was that composed of six factors, explaining 80.25% of the total variance, dissolved before in 12 dimensions. The first factor explained 21.73% of the total variance and it is related with the health of the farmers. The second and third factors presented a close relation with the soil vegetation cover and the irrigation management, responding for 15.57% and 14.82% of the total variance, respectively. The forth factor, explaining 10.18% of the total variance, presents itself as an indicator of the water preservation. The both remaining factor explain, together, 17.95% of the total variation and express the family organization and the agricultural production techniques of the region, respectively. The sustainability of the producers was determined mainly by the health, vegetation coverage conservation and irrigation indicators, expressing the need of practical courses and the action of the rural extension, where the producer will learn agricultural production techniques by doing them.

The present work objectified to detect tendencies of long period in the annual averages of the air temperature. We analyzed minimum, mean, and maximum temperature, absolute minimum, and absolute maximum. Twenty-four meteorological stations on the Northern Northeast (Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Pernambuco) were used. We used the historical series from 1961 to 1990. To identify the tendencies, we used the analysis of lineal regression analysis. The Student's t-test was used to verify the statistical of the coefficients of lineal regression. We observed an increase of the minimum, mean, maximum temperature, and absolute minimum. The absolute maximum temperature didn't present significant tendencies of increase nor of decrease. We conclude that has had a decrease of the annual thermal amplitude of the temperature on the Northern Northeast, mainly, due to the increase of the night temperature.

In this work, the aim was to evaluate the performance of Irrigameter in the management of the irrigation water, led in the culture of the bean plant, comparatively to the use of the methods standard of stove, tensiometers, Bouyoucos, automatic meteorological station and pan Class A. Irrigameter was adjusted to the soil characteristics, culture of the bean and irrigation equipment to confection the management ruler. For direct estimation of the evapotranspiration of the culture of the bean plant in your development stadiums, Irrigameter operated inside with heights of the levels of water of the evaporatório same to 2, 3 and 5 cm, corresponding to the stadiums of initial development, vegetative development and flowering, respectively. The humidity obtained by the standard method of stove it was adopted as reference in the comparisons of the irrigation depth. Irrigameter can be used in the management of the irrigation to determine the consumption of water directly for a culture, in any development stadium; the methods that estimate the evapotranspiration of the culture overestimated the irrigation depth recommended by the standard method of stove, happening behavior contrary with the ones that determines the current humidity of the soil.

Two main floristics groups of the family exist in the Caatinga with different composition happening in two types of substrata: (1) in areas of sedimentary soil (2) in derived areas of the crystalline embasement. Due to the importance of Leguminosae in the biome, an inventory floristic of a defined area was accomplished by the Ministry of the Environment as priority for researches you inform in the Caatinga of the Municipal district of Mirandiba and an analysis of similarity of the flora with the one of other areas of the Brazilian Northeast. Trips were accomplished in the period of March from 2006 to July of 2007 for collection of botanical material. The floristics relationships were appraised for the analysis of UPGMA and PCO starting from the indexes of similarity of Sørensen. 75 species were registered distributed in 39 genera representing 25% of the leguminous mentioned already for the Caatinga. Fence 25% is considered endemic of the Caatinga. The similarity analysis showed the formation of two different groups: The group [A] with similarity of 20% it was established for the Caatinga on sandy soils. The group [B] with similarity of 27% it included the Caatinga on derived soils of the Pre-Cambrian crystalline embasement. Comparing the analyses obtained by the methods UPGMA and PCO, it was verified that the formation of the group [A] and their subgroups were common to the two methods. Already the formation of the group [B] it was not very clear in PCO.

The purpose of this research was to make a floristic survey of the shrubby-arboreous stratum in three contiguous areas of Caatinga in the Cariri of Paraiba. The survey was accomplished in the "Estação Experimental Bacia Escola/UFPB", municipality of São João do Cariri, PB Brazilian Northeast. The experiment consisted of three areas of 3.2 ha, where three parallel transects had been established, in a distance of 20 m from each other, and there were marked ten parcels with equidistant systematic distribution (10 m x 10 m), having been sampled 30 parcels from each area. The floristic survey was carried through by the method of parcels. There was fulfilled a grouping analysis using the index of similarity of Jaccard. The number of parcels showed was enough to reflect the plantdiversity of the studied places; the families with highest number of species in the arboreous-shrubby stratum were Cactaceae and Euphorbiaceae; the species that had been common in the three areas, , were: Aspidosperma pyrifolium, Croton blanchetianus, Poincianella pyramidalis, Jatropha mollisssima, Malva sp., Pilosocereus gounellei, Spondias tuberosa and Opuntia palmadora. The arboreous habitat presented seven species, being higher to the shrubby component that was presented with five species. The more conspicuous arboreous elements had been: Poincianella pyramidalis (Caesalpiniaceae) and Aspidosperma pyrifolium (Apocynaceae). The most important shrubs were: Croton blanchetianus and Jatropha mollisssima (Euphorbiaceae). The analysis made by the index of floristic similarity indicated that the similarity was considered high by the three area, because they presented a Jaccard index higher than 0.25.

This work aimed to evaluate the influence of the substrate and the level of moisture on the germination of 'pau-de-balsa'. Before installation of the germination test, seeds were immersed in hot water at 80 °C until cooling to overcome dormancy. We evaluated the substrate sand and vermiculite, moistened with water volumes equivalent to 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% of the capacity to retain water. The experimental design used was completely randomized in a 2 x 4 factorial with four replicates of 20 seeds. The effects of treatments were compared for germination percentage, speed index and average time of germination. The seeds had higher germination in sand substrate, and the moisture level of the substrate does not affect the variables analyzed.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of salinity in the growth and nitrogen fixation in leucaena. Plants were cultivated in Leonard pots containing clean and sterilized sand. The treatments were distributed in a completely randomized design, in a 3x3 factorial, with five replicates. The first factor corresponded to no inoculation and inoculation with Bradyrhizobium sp SEMIA 6070 and SEMIA 6153 strains. The second factor corresponded to NaCl concentrations: 0, 25 and 50 mol m-3. Were analyzed the height and dry matter accumulation, the number of nodules and nitrogen in plants. The inoculation of plants with the strain SEMIA 6070 provided higher growth and greater nitrogen accumulation in plants thar were not subject to salinity. Nodulation was not affected by salinity. Inoculation with SEMIA 6153 strain provided greater tolerance to salinity.

The Diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), is one of the main plague-insect specie of Brassicaceae plants in Brazil and all over the world. The resistant genotypes use to its control is a promising alternative. This work aimed evaluates the eggs distribution along the plant, the adults' density per plant, and determine the cauliflower genotypes effect in the P. xylostella oviposition. The experiment was carried out at FCAV/UNESP - Jaboticabal Campus Phytossanity Department (Departamento de Fitossanidade). It was evaluated the eggs distribution, the P. xylostella adults density effect using Sharon hybrid, and tests with or without choose choice to determine the P. xylostella nonpreference in the Teresópolis Gigante, Verona, Barcelona, Sharon, Silver Streak, and Piracicaba Precoce genotypes. It is possible conclude that P. xylostella has higher willingness to oviposits in the stem than in the basal leaves. The three couple density of P. xylostella per plant is the best to discriminate cauliflower genotypes regarding the resistance grade to nonpreference choose choice to oviposition. During the P. xylostella oviposition preference tests with choose choice, the genotypes Sharon, Piracicaba Precoce, Barcelona, Verona e Teresópolis Gigante are less desirable to oviposition; while during the no choose choice tests the genotypes did not differ among them.

This study was carried out at the Department of Plant Production, Sector Horticulture, São Paulo State University-UNESP, Botucatu Campus, São Paulo State, Brazil in order to evaluate the effect of sources and increasing doses of potassium in roots of eggplant. The experimental design was randomized blocks in factorial scheme 2 x 4 (two sources of potassium: KCl and K2SO4 and four doses of K2O, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 kg ha-1) and three replications. For the experiment, we used Oxisol medium texture (615 g of sand, 45 g of silt and 340 g of clay per kg soil). The soil passed through sieve of 5 mm and packed in plastic pots with a capacity of 32 liters of soil where plants were grown. The pots were distributed with a spacing of 0,63 m between plants and 1,0 m between rows each pot being grown with a plant. The evaluated characteristics were: root dry mass and volume of the root. It was concluded that sources and excessive doses of mineral K2O induces stress in eggplants and affect the roots being less harmful K2SO4 source.

The cultivation of sweet herb of great economic importance for small farmers in the micro and Agrest Swamp of Paraíba and also in the state of Pernambuco. Among the natural enemies, the scissors Euborellia annulipes proves to be a voracious predator, that is, with high ability to attack and feed on different prey, particularly of eggs and immature stages of insects of Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. The objective of this research was to study the biological aspects of E. annulipes on H. foeniculi laboratory. The study was conducted at the Entomology Laboratory, Department of Plant Protection at the UFPB in a climatic chamber, at 25 ± 1 ºC, relative humidity of 70 ± 10% RH and 12 hours. Scissors were selected in adulthood from rearing on artificial diet in the laboratory. From these insects have made observations of posture, viability and morphology of eggs of E. annulipes. Fifty nymphs were selected for each stage of development (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) of the scissors and fed separately with aphids (1st-2nd, 3rd and 4th instar). There has been evaluation regarding the number and duration of instars. There are five instars to the nymphal stage of E. annulipes, the average incubation period was 12.9 days, pre-oviposition period of 18.2 days and 46.75 eggs per clutch, there was an increase of nymphal E. annulipes in that it offered up more aphids developed.