Untitled - Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia - Unesp

than in cattle, where regional meat is depreciated and the amount paid unreal, being more down
about 20 percent compared to the bovine. This problem is accompanied by an economic
exploitation of marchers, who pay the producer of buffalo a lower price, however when buffalo
meat sold at retail, it is not sold as buffalo but as beef.
In regards to milk, although the sub-products of fresh buffalo milk, especially milk and
cheese has a market price higher than beef, the demand for these products is high in the local
market as well as throughout the state of Pará and Brazil.
It must be taken in account that a way out of the economic stagnation which is the
production site of Buffalo is to establish farms nuclei of this species in areas outside the floodplain
seeking to put the meat and milk of buffalo with forthcoming differentiated, regardless of what
occurs in other regions of Brazil.
INDISCRIMINATE ANIMALS EXPORT AND SLAUGHTER
The large ruminant livestock, cattle and buffaloes in the study area represents one of the
most important socioeconomic activities of small and medium farmers. With the current
development process in the areas of wetlands in this region are in the process of change, where the
buffalo are considered a problem and pointed out as a cause of progressive degradation of the
ecosystem of the floodplain, farmers are turning to the sale of summary their flocks. Thus, within
the context of this study, the indiscriminate slaughter of buffalo in all categories, especially cows
seems to be one of the determining factors for the regional population decline of this species.
Otherwise also selling arrays to other regions of Brazil and in particular for countries bordering
such as Colombia and Venezuela, has been identified as a major responsible for the decrease of the
local population. It is estimated that over 10,000 female buffalo have been exported in the last
decade.
NEGLECT OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
There are several problems associated with the lack of attention of governmental agencies to
small and medium farmers in the floodplain areas. Thus one of the main problems existing in the
areas of floodplains seems to be the land, where the occupants / owners do not have outright
ownership of land - tenure. Without the definitive document - land tenure, there is no possibility of
financing by banks. This factor, limits the introduction of technology in the sector, leading to a
cycle of permanent stagnation. Moreover small and medium farmers in the floodplain are totally
underserved by funding agencies and government extension.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS - OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT
There is need to recognize that there are many constrains which are affecting the buffalo
breeding at regional level.This implies that there is need to change many aspects involved in the
actual buffalo production system in the floodplain in order to increase productivity of the regional
herd and ensure efficiency in resource utilization. Although floodplain can be considered an
adequate place to raise buffaloes economically, due the increased pressure on the land use
associated to a campaign orchestrated by people and organizations opposing the presence of buffalo
in the areas of floodplains, makes it seem more feasible from a technical and economic, foster and
establish the breeding of buffaloes on small farms in upland areas, mainly taking advantage
degraded areas where agricultural activity once existed or livestock. Thus deal with these problems
already identified, we suggest the following measures:
- Preparation of a local development project (LDP) on buffalo production system to be promoted
be promoted in order to produce milk for cheese production, milk preparations, yogurt and others;
- Establish with the future technology park created by UFOPA an experimental plant for processing
of buffalo milk in the form of a company incubated
REFERENCES
Adepará - Agência de Defesa Agropecuária do Pará. Escritório Regional de Santarém.
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