Dwarf cashew crop expansion in the Brazilian semiarid region: Assessing policy alternatives in Pio IX, Piauí

Cashew crops are of great importance to small landholders in many tropical countries and grow in harsh semiarid climatic and soil conditions. Cashew crops have been economically and socially relevant in the Brazilian semiarid region since the 1960s, when governmental policies oriented to exportation began to encourage cashew nut production in large monoculture fields. Since then, cashew cultivation has been expanded by the nut industry and, recently, small settlement farmers have started to cultivate dwarf cashew tree clones. The focus of cashew cultivation also moved from the nut extraction in standard trees to the removal of the peduncle in dwarf species. In the present study, we undertook a historical review of governmental policies oriented to the establishment of cashew crops in Pio IX, Piauí, and the resulting patterns of land use within the landscape, obtained from high-resolution image classification. We noted that dwarf cashew cultivation was significant in government settlement projects, as was secondary vegetation recovery in largely abandoned areas. This vegetation recovery enhances the protection of Caatinga fragments and the restoration of relevant ecosystem services. Based on the land use patterns, we proposed an initial characterization of cashew farmers to suggest possible pathways for restoration of the Caatinga biome.