Cashew nut production in the micro-regions of Ceará from 1993 to 2016

The State of Ceará (Brazil) is considered the main producer of cashew nuts in Brazil. In this context, this study aims to analyze the cashew nut production in the micro-regions of Ceará from 1993 to 2016. Based on the data available in the IBGE Automatic Recovery System - SIDRA and using the descriptive tabular methodology, the variables: planted area, area harvested, quantity produced and value of production. The results indicate that during the analyzed period, the micro-region of the Camocim and Acaraú coastline had the highest rates of productivity in all variables compared to the others. It was also observed that the Cascavel micro-region had good results in this period with a considerable increase in its production since 1995, but the micro-region of Lavras da Mangabeira presented the lowest values. A worrying factor noted during the analysis was the constant oscillations in the productivity indexes of cashew nuts, which may be directly related to the dry season. Given this, it is observed that there is room for more efficient public policies that attenuate the negative effects of climatic variations on both production and income of farmers