Studies related to the small productive systems from varzea of the Amazonas state.

The proposal was to study the social, economic, and political components involved in the agroforestry systems used by small farmers holders of the varzeas ecosystems the Amazonas state. The research started on october 1991, by meetings, trainings, seminars, field visits during the flooding and dry periods, activities reports, and methodological orientation manuals. The used method was the "case study", since it permit the reconstruction and total comprehension of the studied phenomenons. The study area was the Solimoes-Amazonas riversides in the Amazonas state, divided in four microregions: Medium Solimoes (counties of Coari and Codajas), Low Solimoes (Manaquiri and Iranduba), High Amazonas (Careiro da Varzea), and Medium Amazonas (Barreirinha, Parintins). Trraditionally used by indians and mestizos, the agroforestry systems, after a period of exploration basically extractive, are changing with the regional agriculture modernization process. In the microregions studied, occurs a significant contribution from the indigenous knowledge, by which the nature in considered the source of several products, and the maintenance of the biodiversity. This occurs through the practices of traditional and empirical knowledges, integrated in a major or minor scale, to the practices introduced by farmers, in their majority from other regions, which prefer monocultivation