Multifuncionalidade da agricultura no Rio Grande do Norte: estudos de casos nos municípios de São Miguel do Gostoso/RN, Passa e Fica/RN e Serra de São Bento/RN

Abstract

This academic work aimed to find evidence of a multifunctional agriculture in Rio Grande do Norte, specifically in the cities: São Miguel do Gostoso, Passa e Fica and Serra de São Bento. For this reason, interviews were conducted with owners and employees of the hostels of the three municipalities and questionnaires were sent to EMATER and FETARN municipalities RN, fifteen municipalities sent the answers and this enable the mapping of the multifunctional activities of these municipalities. It could be observed that multifunctional agriculture is strongly related to archaeological sites, religious tourism and cultural festivals in which they refer to mapped municipalities and sports and eco-tourism in the counties where the case studies were performed, these activities are generating a new source of employment and income for the population of these municipalities. Also it was revealed that the multifunctionality of agriculture in RN has its specificities which consists in the generation of employment, most of the employees of the hostels live in urban areas and do not practice agriculture or stopped practicing agriculture in order to work only at the hostels, and are few the residents of rural areas practice agriculture.