It was characterized the rural producers and their lands of the Municipal districts of Itambé, Caruaru and Serra Talhada, Pernambuco. The producers were interviewed in Organizations and/or Rural Producers Associations and in free markets of Itambé, Caruaru and Serra Talhada. Informations about the rural producers and lands, the cattle activity and the forest management were collected. The population mean age is above 50 years old with low scholar education, except to Itambé. Small pasture lands prevailed and the cattle activity was the more practiced by the rural producers, with animals grazing during all the year. The proprietors, in majority, don't accomplish forage conservation and they don't have information about agroforest systems and plan of forest management . The largest use of species was for firewood, coal and stake in Serra Talhada, Caruaru and Itambé, respectively, and the producers of Itambé and Caruaru are the largest importers of forest products. The three township present potentialities for silvipastoril system aplication, which besides supplying fodder plant the animals can also offer lumber and energy products for the agricultural prorietors.

The objective of this work was to verify the usage level and the occurrence of the papaya (Jacaratia corumbensis O. kuntze) in a caatinga area of 112 ha, located in eight communities of small farmers in the semi-arid region of Bahia State. The work was accomplished with 149 farmers, in the period from August to December 2000. In each community, interviews with the farmers were done in order to verify those that used the papaya (mamãozinho-de-veado) to feed the animals in the dry season, and also to verify a rise in the density of plants per hectare. The data analysis showed that the papaya was used in all the studied communities as an alternative for alimentary supplement for the animals in the dry season. The papaya plant density of natural occurrence in the communities was of 10.38 plants /ha, in average, indicating that this plant is well disseminated in the area, being an alimentary supplement source for the animals in the semi-arid conditions.

This work aimed to evaluate the economic viability of the pineapple production in the Northern region of Rio de Janeiro State. One concludes that the majority of producers in this region presented an internal return average rate of 33.08%, indicating that pineapple production shows satisfactory economic viability. On the other hand, several pineapple producers of this region are deficient in both production management and administration control. In this sense, it was observed low productivity, inefficiency of the production resources and product price instability in the commercialization process, as one among other factors that result directly in the low profitability of this enterprise. It was found out that the main determinant factors of pineapple production competitiveness in the mentioned region are related to unsuitable management of irrigation, diseases and weeds control, defensives usage, costs management and commercialization process.

Eight domestic felines (Felis domestica), males, adults, healthy, without a defined breed, with variable weights and ages, were randomly divided into two groups of four animals and submitted to the enteral feeding techniques: nasoesophageal intubation and esophagostomy, aiming to compare clinically and surgically both techniques. The average time required for the nasoesophageal intubation (1min 15sec) was significantly smaller than for the esophagostomy (5min 25sec) according to Fisher¿s test. In the nasoesophageal intubation technique, an easiness in the positioning of the feeding tube was observed when compared to the esophagostomy technique, being accomplished only with local topical anesthetics. All the animals submitted to the nasoesophageal intubation technique presented sneezes and uneasiness during the feeding supply, compared to those submitted to the esophagostomy technique. Conclusions were that the nasoesophageal intubation technique allows smaller surgical and, consequently, anesthetic time; it is less traumatic; the animals submitted to the esophagostomy technique have accepted the tube better; the techniques are easily accomplished and allow the nutritional maintenance of the animals.

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