In the region of the municipality of Itapetininga, about 400 families work in vegetable growing, with a focus on cucumber production over an area of about 92 hectares, generating approximately 110,000 boxes of cucumbers, each box holding about 20 kilograms. As a consequence of this large-scale production, their product is most often sent to Ceagesp.
The cucumber production cycle lasts about 90 days, making it possible to have several harvests in a year. March and April are when cucumbers are harvested on the largest scale, since that is the time of high production. However, in 2014 there was a sharp oversupply on the market, causing prices to fall considerably.
One of the main pests that affects this crop is the whitefly, but some producers have used an orange-oil-based product that works as a poison to combat this pest.
Thus, according to the cucumber production data from family farmers, one can understand, from a small sample, the importance of Family Farming in society, both for consumers and for the producing families.
Published by Pedro Henrique Santos Bisi
The accuracy of the information on this page, as well as of the images and photographs, is the sole responsibility of the cited sources and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the Digital Skills for Family Farming (CoDAF) outreach project, its collaborators or the institutions linked to the project.