A questão do valor do clima: reflexões em torno de um valor conceitual para a precipitação pluviométrica na produção agrícola

Abstract

The climate in the whole of its parameters such as temperature, humidity, radiation, and precipitation, plays a fundamental role in agricultural production systems in tropical regions, whereas it is through the climate system that occurs incoming and outgoing energy in the productive environment, providing capacity for production. The climatic characteristics presented in a particular locality, besides becoming a factor of spatial differentiation that print qualities to the environment, can be elements to facilitate production, and are incorporated into the productive process in form of aagricultural input increasing and generating values in productivity. This way, the objective of this study is to address the importance of rainfall as representative elements of the climate in a discussion in the perspective of Geography of Climate, stirring a debate over the development of a conceptual value for this, from involvement it in the productive process at the head of different social groups. The research was supported in a review of theoretical literature on the influence of climate on agriculture, and in the analysis and comparison of data on rainfall and the production and productivity of upland rice in the municipality of Jataí in southwest of Goiás between the years 1978 and 2006. It was also sustained in the hypothesis that the climate has value that can be quantified and qualified through the variable rainfall, and that this value is formed by the significance and influence of it in the production process, therefore, viewed as value of use and value of existence. In the development of the study, was found that the variation in productivity of upland rice is directly related to the variability and distribution of rainfall throughout the productive period, which is therefore a limiting factor of production. It was also found that the degree of variability in production compared to rainfall variability, also depends on the intensity and use of technological apparatus of agricultural production among different population groups according to their economic relations and socio-cultural factors in the process of occupying the space, and for this, the value of climate is given from the intensity of dependency relationships established between individuals and the natural physical environment.