Producers and potentialities of Pereskia aculeata in the Vale do Paraíba Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Castro, Cristina Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Devide, Antonio Carlos Pries, Godoy Junior, Ederaldo, Farinassi, Fabrício Miguel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Verde de Agroecologia e Desenvolvimento Sustentavel
• Texto Completo: https://www.gvaa.com.br/revista/index.php/RVADS/article/view/9810
• topic: Cultura alimentar; Segurança alimentar e nutricional; Ciência cidadã; Conservação on farm; Food culture; Food and nutrition security; Citizen science; Conservation on farm; Cultura de la comida; Seguridad alimentaria y nutricional; Ciencia ciudadana; Conservación en finca

The objective of this research was to collect online data about the cultivation of 'ora-pro-nóbis' (OPN) in the Vale do Paraíba Paulista to support research planning and public policies. A questionnaire with 24 questions was created using a remote research management application and covered the cultivation, consumption and commercialization of OPN. Applied to the agroecology group Rede Agroflorestal do Vale do Paraíba (Rede) and food security group Roda de Saberes (ROSA), made up of farmers, producers and rural owners, agriculture, health and education professionals, we obtained 52 completed questionnaires with OPN valued for its high protein and nutritional content, as a traditional food widely used by 96% of respondents who keep few plants in backyards and farms (82%) for the consumption of 0.5-1, 0kg of leaves per month in fresh form (29%), green juice (22%), cakes and breads (21%) and sautéed with meat (17%). Research should focus on pruning management (67%), necessary to maintain the low size of the plants and prevent the spikes from increasing in size as the branches age. This research provided a current overview of the growing popular interest in the consumption of OPN, which justifies investments to improve management and expand the scale of production to also serve the food and pharmaceutical industries.