Combater as secas e defender as florestas a natureza nos desafios da ciência e da técnica para modernizar o Brasil (1889 a 1934)

In the first decades of 20th century the just instituted Brazilian Republic faced the challenge to modernize the country. Considering that the progress was associated with the exhaustion of the forest reserves and with climatic changes, two big issues were seen as fundamental: To Fight the Droughts and To Defend the Forests; headed by professionals who were dedicated to these ideals. This research starts from the premise that these were the main challenges enforced by nature to the Brazilian development; the general objective was delimited in the search to understand the meaning and the conception of the natural world by this group of professionals who faced the shock between modernizing the country and conserving its natural resources. Aiming to contribute with the construction of the Brazilian environmental history and to bring historical elements to the debate about the environment in the country, the author concentrates his attention to the analyses, the discussions and the actions that preceded the regulation on the use of natural resources and the implementation of the environmental legislation in Brazil, occurred in 1934. The investigation uses as methodological basis the theoretical directions of environmental history, using sources of data still little explored and valued. In such way, it is taken as starting point some published papers about this subject during the period between 1889 and 1934 in two technical magazines the Revista Brazil Ferro-Carril and the Revista do Club de Engenharia. National engineering played a basic role in this process while arguing, projecting and constructing the development. The formulated proposals, after being divulged, had fomented the interchange with other professionals and had favored the advance of ambient questions in Brazil, in the sense to preserve natural resources, to construct more harmonic relations between the society and the nature and to equate the development with the environment preservation

Contra as Secas: a engenharia e as origens de um planejamento regional no nordeste brasileiro

Droughts surfaced in 1877 as a crucial problem for the birthing Brazilian nation. Engineers, who formed the country's technical and scientific elite, took it upon themselves to study, understand and fight the problem through planned actions of intervention on space. This work, based on proposals and discussions contained in engineering magazines and reports, aims to provide elements for the comprehension of how these systematized actions against droughts, in the Iate nineteenth and early twentieth century, contributed to spatial analysis and the formation of a (then-inexistent) regional and territorial planning discipline in Brazi!. Engineers, by taking up the position of masterminds in the country's modernization, guaranteed for themselves personal economic stability, social prestige and political power. By understanding nature, either as a resource to be exploited or an adversary to national progress, they contributed to the delimitation of the region now known as the Northeast. By seeking to understand the drought phenomenon, they created knowledge about the space they sought to intervene on; by constructing their projects amid political and economical difficulty, they changed the organizational structures of cities and country in the northeast. The proposals for açudes (Iarge water reservoirs) allowed the fixation of population and the resistance against droughts; the roads - railroads and automotive roadways - connected the sertão to the capitais and the coast, speeding up help to the affected populations during droughts and allowing the circulation of goods so as to strengthen the local economies in normal rimes. The adopted practices and techniques, adapted from foreign experience and developed through trial and improvement, were consolidated as an eminently spatial intervention course, even if a theoretical body of regional or territorial planning wasn't formed in Brazil. Regional Planning proper was first applied in the country in the Northeast itself, in the 1950s, based off an economical view of reality in order to achieve development. The engineer's work prior tothat date, however, cannot be dlsconsldered. It was proved that, despite facing financial and political hurdles, engineers had a profound commitment to the problem and intended to act systematically to transform the economical and social relations in the region, in order to be victorious in their struggle against droughts

O ouro branco abre caminho: o algodão e a modernização do espaço urbano da Cidade da Parahyba (1850-1924)

The present research deals with the modernization process of the Cidade da Parahyba2, between 1850 and 1924, and its relation with the cotton economy, which represented the main source of wealth accumulation for both the private and the public sectors throughout the First Republic. This study on urban history was developed by focusing on the understanding of the city s spatial formation, and despite its emphasis on the economic aspects involved, other factors that also contribute to the development of the social life were not put aside. The modernization process of the Cidade da Parahyba was also analyzed during the period established for the study according to a chronological and thematic approach that established comparisons with the financial situation of the State, whenever this was necessary, with special attention to the contribution of the cotton economy to the State´s revenues. It was possible to detect a lack of financial help and loans from the federal and municipal administrations for finishing several public works already underway in the capital, since the federal funds allocated to the State of Parahyba do Norte were rather employed in emergency works against droughts and in agricultural development. One can then conclude that the financial resources required for the urban interventions were withdrawn from the State s treasury itself, resources that were collected mainly from activities such as cotton exportation and cotton trading. Another factor shows the interdependence between the urban remodeling and the cotton economy: during the years marked by great droughts or by hard plagues on the cotton plantations, cotton production decreased, as well as the State s finances. The first measures taken by the State s administrators were to halt all projects of urban remodeling in progress in the Cidade da Parahyba, which was, clearly, the most privileged city by the State s presidents during the period analyzed. 2 The city of João Pessoa was named Cidade da Parahyba, a designation that remained until September 1930, when it received its present-day name in order to pay homage to the president of the State, João Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, murdered in the city of Recife in August of that same year. At that time, the State of Paraíba was known as Parahyba do Norte. Since this work is limited to a period of time comprised within the First Republic, the names employed respect the terms used in those days

Variação temporal da Comunidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos em um riacho intermitente do semiárido brasileiro

In Brazilian semiarid region, the majority of water bodies are temporary and the biodiversity in these ecosystems is poorly known. The goal of this study was to describe the temporal variation of benthic macroinvertebrates in an intermittent stream in the Brazilian semiarid region. From March to July of 2009, surveys of benthic macroinvertebrates and water physiochemical parameters were done in a first order stream located at Piranhas-Açu River basin. 25 macroinvertebrates families were found, 21 belonging to Insecta class. The chironomids were the most abundant group during all study period and were represented by 19 genus. The largest densities and taxonomic richness were seen in the drying phase of the stream while the smallest values were found in the period with the heaviest rainfalls ( wet phase ). Only the families Chironomidae and Ceratopogonidae were found during all study period, suggesting that these groups have better adaptations to support floods and droughts. Furthermore, these two groups seemed to be pioneering in this stream. Among the chironomids, Paratendipes dominated the period of floods while Tanytarsus were more abundant in the drying phase . This study showed that hydrological fluctuation is the main force influencing the macroinvertebrate community in this stream, therefore, efforts seeking the conservation and management of Brazilian semiarid water bodies should consider this high natural variability in flow regime

ELOY DE SOUZA: UMA INTERPRETAÇÃO SOBRE O NORDESTE E OS DILEMAS DAS SECAS

The thought of Eloy de Souza is studied (1873-1959), that left a significant intellectual production in the journalistic, cultural and politicial scope on the Northeast and the dilemmas of the droughts. Through the method of content analysis, his journalistic and literary speech is investigated, looking at to understand the elaboration and/ or reiteration of categories, of representations and of values; it is verified how was conceived the constitution of the political thought and which is it´s principal slopes; the parliamentary speech, present in his interventions is analyzed in plenary session, participation in commissions and in his projects, particularly in the thematic area of the droughts. It is verified that his work is built in a political and ideological perspective inserting the bourgeoisie landowner's interests and Northeastern commercial and of it´s political strata, inside the historical block of agro-industry power that has as irradiation focus the area of the coffee represented politically by the oligarchies person from São Paulo and Minas Gerais. In that sense, two crucial categories emerge: the droughts and the country, as the Northeastern and Brazilian man's synthesis, with their resistance capacity and adaptation, and their creative effort in an adverse enviroment, that Eloy de Souza started to insert in his political speech. However, the vision that he passes of the "country suffer", expresses a certain idealization of a lifestyle that corresponds to a traditional dominance, that he want´s to be reproduced. Although it looked for the solution for the drought through the modernization of the economy by the adoption of advanced methods as the irrigation, his concern went back to the conservation of the economical and cultural political hegemony of that elite. Thus, his inquietude with the process of integration of the subordinate sections, justifies his consensual speech, harmonic as organic intellectual of the agrarian-commercial bourgeoisie of the Brazilian Northeast

Trabalho, pobreza e caridade: as ações do Padre Ibiapina nos sertões do Nordeste

This work started from an investigation concerning the process of education, moralization and disciplining of the poor in the backlands of the Brazilian Northeast region, in the second half of the 19th century, through the incorporation of the values of productive work. In order to do so, we took as our field of investigation the missions of Father José Antônio Pereira Ibiapina (1806-1883), in which an extensive work was developed, including the construction of twenty two (22) charity houses in the States of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Ceará e Piauí, but also of weirs, churches, graveyards, hospitals and so forth. Given the socio-historical character of the research, we adopted qualitative methods of analysis and the following procedures: survey and analysis of documents, statute and internal rules that ordered the workings of the charity houses; biographies on Father Ibiapina and the missions‟ reports, as well as various sorts of publications on the missionary. Our study comprises his 27 year-period of missionary-religious activity (1856-1883), and undertakes an analysis on the topic of poverty, since the medieval Christian take on it until modernity, when it stops representing a value and becomes a problem to be solved through work. The socio-political context in which Ibiapina lived in the Northeast was marked by the consequence of droughts and economic crises in the region. The analysis of the documents indicates that, in the circumstances of political weakness and lack of interest for regional demands by the national political agenda, his missionary actions produced strong effects. Starting from an ethics of valorization of work, which combined modern and traditional elements, his actions set up disciplinary, moralizing and civil educational practices of the poor, founding, simultaneously, a pragmatic religious experience directed at the resolution of the problems caused by poverty. In that sense, we observe that such actions are connected to the broader process of moralization and education of the poor, but the analysis also suggests that their inscription into the social order articulated both forward as well as conservative aspects of the established system

Influência das mudanças climáticas na estrutura funcional da comunidade fitoplanctônica em um reservatório da região do semiárido

The Brazilian Northeast is the most vulnerable region to climatic variability risks. For the Brazilian semi-arid is expected a reduction in the overall rates of precipitation and an increase in the number of dry days. These changes predicted by the IPCC (2007) will intensify the rainfall and droughts period that could promote the dominance of cyanobacteria, thus affecting the water quality of reservoirs, that are most used for water supply, in the semi-arid. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of increasing temperature combined with nutrient enrichment on the functional structure of the phytoplankton community of a mesotrophic reservoir in the semi-arid, in the worst case scenario of climate change predicted by the IPCC (2007). Two experiments were performed, one in a rainy season and another in the dry season. In the water sampled, nutrients (nitrate and orthophosphate) were added in different concentrations. The microcosms were submitted to two different temperatures, five-year average of air temperature in the reservoir (control) and 4°C above the control temperature (warming). The results of this study showed that warming and nutrient enrichment benefited mainly the functional groups of cyanobacteria. During the rainy season it was verified the increasing biomass of small functional groups of unicellular and opportunists algae such as F (colonial green algae with mucilage) and X1 (nanoplanktonic algae of eutrophic lake systems). It was also observed an increasing in total biomass, in the richness and diversity of the community. In the dry season experiment there was a greater contribution in the relative biomass of filamentous algae, with a replacement of the group S1 (non-filamentous cyanobacteria with heterocytes) for H1 (filamentous cyanobacteria with heterocytes) in nutrient- enriched treatments. Moreover, there was also loss in total biomass, species richness and diversity of the community. The effects of temperature and nutrients manipulation on phytoplankton community of reservoir Ministro João Alves provoked changes in species richness, the diversity of the community and its functional composition, being the dry period which showed the highest susceptibility to the increase in the contribution of potentially toxic cyanobacteria with heterocytes

Saberes e práticas em experiência de construção da sustentabilidade no meio rural nordestino

The purpose of this work is to analyze the knowledge relationships that articulate in projects of maintainable rural development construction for the paraiban semi-arid, analyzing the farmers daily practices and their relationship with the technological practices spread by ONGs. We took as empirical object the rural community of Lajedo de Timbaúba, municipal district of Soledade-PB, located in the very small region of paraiban Curimataú. It is a community where registers one of the first cases of maintainable rural development planning in the state of Paraíba. The analysis was centered on the farmers experiences of life in sustainability experience, trying to understand how they acquire new knowledge and how they interact with them. In methodological terms, it was considered feasible to place the knowledge interaction between the farmers and technicians from ONGs by placing the analysis according to Paulo Freire s questioning (2006): extension or communication? To understand the farmers daily practices, it was resorted to the theoretical contribution by Michel de Certeau (2008) in order to discern a microresistance movement of inversion/rejection/changing by the farmers in relation to their external knowledge. Just from the theoretical point of view and resorting to the imaginary social by Cornelius Castoriadis (1982), it was considered the way of living of the farmers researched, having as reference the experience in the material and symbolic production of their lives. It became indispensable, therefore, not to dissociate the knowledge relationships between farmers and technicians from ONGs from the sustainability concepts, maintainable rural development, and rural extension. The results of the study revealed that the farmers from Lajedo de Timbaúba while dealing with the technological practices proposed by ONGs that work in the community, express those practices from their daily logic, and they constitute them in survival strategies that are inserted in their own idiosyncrasy. It was verified, therefore, that the external knowledge presented by the proposals of sociability alternatives with the droughts in the perspective of maintainable development while placed in the farmers daily relationship, they are judged as advantageous or disadvantageous when they are confronted with their peculiar way of doing their daily work. The technological practices are incorporated, denied, or recreated starting from evaluative criteria related to the preservation of the soil and to the economical and social reproduction of the unit of production of family agriculture

O efeito do regime hidrológico do semiárido na composição de espécies durante dominância de cianobactérias em um reservatório tropical

The potentially toxic cyanobacterial blooms in water bodies are spread across the globe, resulting in the loss of water quality and adverse effects on human health. In arid and semiarid regions, the hydrologic regime characterized by an annual cycle of drought and rain, change the volume and the retention time of the reservoir. Such changes affect the limnological characteristics and causing changes in composition and biomass community of cyanobacteria. The reservoir Cruzeta (Zmax = 8.7 m) is a eutrophic water supply source located in the semiarid tropical (Northeast Brazil). Raised the hypothesis that the hydrological regime of semi-arid tropical is a determining factor in the availability of resources in eutrophic water sources, which influences the composition of dominant species of cyanobacteria. The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in biomass and species composition of cyanobacteria for two annual hydrological cycles and evaluate factors drivers. The study was divided into five distinct periods (dry 2010, rain 2011, dry 2011, rain 2012, dry 2012). The dominant group found in all periods was Cyanobacteria (99% of total biomass), which contributed to the low diversity. The filamentous species Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii was present at both points in almost every study. The colonial species Microcystis panniformis and Sphaerocavum brasiliensis dominated only in periods with lower volumes of water. The diatoms contribute more to the biomass during the period of severe drought. The point near the dam (P1) had phytoplankton biomass larger than the point near the tributary (P2). The dominant species of colonial cyanobacteria lasted until the overflow in P1, and P2 this dominance was until the first rains. The redundancy analysis indicated that physical factors such as light availability and water level were the main factors driving the seasonal succession of phytoplankton. The composition of phytoplankton in spring was alternated by species of filamentous cyanobacteria in conditions of poor stability of the water column, such as Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, and colonial species under conditions of high stability of the water column, such as Microcystis panniformis and Sphaerocavum brasiliensis. The extremes of torrential rains and severe droughts, governed by the hydrological regime of the semi-arid region led to the availability of resources in the watershed, directing the spatial and temporal dynamics of phytoplankton in the reservoir Cruzeta

Engenharia nos sertões nordestinos: o Gargalheiras, a Barragem Marechal Dutra e a comunidade de Acari, 1909-1958

In Brazil, between the late nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth, polytechnic engineers assumed an important role in discussing the establishment of a modern country. The problem of drought in northeastern Brazil gave the professionals performance, within an interventional process more mounts, the conception plans and measures for the purposeful integration of the territory afflicted. With the foundation of Inspetoria de Obras Contra as Secas (IOCS), in 1909, the actions to combat drought and would be institutionalized, them, studies performed out by technical and scientific committees would be systematically applied in the Brazilian Northeast. So, This work was central objective understand the historical process inplantation of a whole infrastructure of modern character by professional technical and their consequences within the Northeast Geographic space, in specific, in the municipality of Acari in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, in the first half of the twentieth century. The politics of the government, through technical education and scientific engineers polytechnics, would emphasize, during the twentieth century, the building of dams, and irrigation canals, wells, railways, highways, between other elements, that would soon transform the physical space-northeast, specifically, the territory acariense. These works began to contribute to the setting of man backcountry their land, promote the regular practice of agriculture even in periods of drought and, the integration, especially, economic of territory acariense the other producing regions of Rio Grande do Norte and the Northeast as well as promoting the modification of the landscape of the world backcountry. These actions functioned as elements of modernity and progress that transformed the space by favoring by favoring the formation of urban networks (urban) in this space

A Produção do Flagelo : a re-produção do espaço social da seca na cidade de Mossoró (1877-1903-1915)

The great droughts re- produced spaces in the city of Mossoró / RN in the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Its dimension exceeds the climatic effects becoming social locus when advances over the political and economic sectors, social and cultural of the North / Northeast Brazilian societies during that period. This way, analyzing the re-production of social space in episodes of Mossoró‟s droughts is our toil. So try to reveal each segment, route and aspect of production of space in its size and interface between the perceived, conceived and lived, and subjects related to it - refugees, population and authorities - during the droughts of 1877, 1903 and 1915 within Mossoró city. Therefore, issues such as the constitution and representation of the city and social space in the terrifying experience of the drought of 1877, the production of fixed objects and flows of the urban web through of migrant labor, attempts to control, discipline and spatial planning and ways to resistance to these charges in daily sphere are key issues addressed in this work. For this we use diverse sources as minutes of the city council, reports from provincial presidents, media, memory books and others that sustain us in building our narrative and problematic. This way, the spatial production of Mossoró‟s droughts reveals itself in the field of relations and political-economic transformations and sociocultural, inextricably, that shapes and mobilizes your own social space

Caicó: uma cidade entre a recusa e a sedução

This research has as object of study the city of Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte State, between the middle part of the decade of 1920 and the beginning of 1930. It intended to perceive the projects thought to the city of Caicó as well as the challenges due to the new ideas of modernity that were circulating around the contemporary world. So it consists in an important historical exercise about the relation between history and space in to the extent that itself comes to surface a city deals by diverse angles whose perspectives can be read in several "fragments of memory", such as newspapers, trials-crime, reports, memories, books, etc., those show the tension between the traditional and the modern way of life one. In this way, it´s tried to transform the space, giving it a new reference, inspired in what occurs in the Brazilian big cities and around the world, through the use of the techniques, of the electricity, of the movies, of the press, cars, medicine and so on. At the same time in that is necessary-itself deal with the permanencies such as the old manners and the droughts and theirs "flagellated" people. Therefore, it is in this difficult phase that is tried legitimize the city of Caicó as the "Capital of the Seridó", in the threshold between the refusal and the seduction

Protozoários de vida livre em ambientes aquáticos do RN: ocorrência, caracterização e importância para a educação básica

Water is considered an essential right to life, besides being a determinant of economic development and social welfare, represented by both the quantity available, and the quality. In semi-arid Northeast, droughts occurring on a regular basis combined with human activities, aggravate the situation regarding the conservation of water resources in this area. To alleviate this condition is common to construction of artificial reservoirs, such as reservoirs and dams. As in natural aquatic environments, these reservoirs are potential sites for the proliferation, growth and development of diverse biological communities, whether of animals, plants and microorganisms. Research on the composition and ecology of these communities, especially microbial, are still restricted. One of the least studied groups in these environments are free-living protozoa, which over time have been neglected and after discoveries about its various functions in the aquatic ecosystem are beginning to receive more attention from scholars. They are, in quantitative terms, the most important consumers of microorganisms (mainly bacteria and algae) in aquatic environments, and therefore control the abundance of these. They may therefore influence the structure of the aquatic food chain in terms of species composition, abundance, biomass and biodiversity. Despite the recognition of the importance of protozoa in the final of the trophic transfer in aquatic environments, there are few data and, in general, are still precarious knowledge of them. Given the importance of protozoa in aquatic environments and the paucity of research on this group, especially in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the present study aimed at identifying the genus and species of free-living protozoa that are present in the Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves Dam as well as to relate the occurrence and dynamics of the trophic conditions in the environment in which they are inserted, in order to support the hypothesis that species that are in these environments can serve to indicate the water quality. We observed the presence of 65 taxa of free-living protozoa, of which 29 were identified at the species level. There was a similarity space in taxonomic composition of protozoa, suggesting a possible regulation of this type of community for limnological variables other than those studied in this work (chlorophyll a, pH, temperature). Although it was aimed to analyze the conceptions of teachers and students from nearby towns Dam Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves, on issues relating to water quality and the role of protozoa. For this, we applied questionnaires with teachers and pupils of public schools of San Rafael and Itajá. It was concluded that teachers and students recognize the multi-dam Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves, although unaware of important aspects of the dynamics and ecology of this environment. Conceptions of teachers and students are matched at various times, especially with regard to waterborne diseases. In an attempt to identify possible misconceptions about the knowledge of the protozoa, assuming that these organisms have neglected their ecological role, and are seen as only, disease, a study was done with teachers and students, following a particular methodology that allowed look so clear and precise results. It was clear that knowledge about the free-living protozoa is still quite limited. The alternative conceptions that were found show a direct relation of protozoans and diseases. From the data obtained by these studies, we planned a series of science communication activities, environmental education and health education in schools close to study environments in order to promote a didactic transposition of accumulated knowledge about these organisms, favoring continuing education of teachers and the increase of information to the local community through the knowledge of biodiversity and ecology of these organisms. Moreover, the results found in this study and reflections on it that led to propose the elaboration of a book Readers with an emphasis on the group of freeliving protozoa in the populations for use in public schools in the region where it was developed the semiarid work

Experiências de inverno no seridó potiguar

The knowledge known as "winter experiences" has been developed for centuries among country people in the Brazilian Northeast hinterlands. It consists in the systematic observation of the nature to forecast and protect people against the effects of droughts. This knowledge is transmitted orally through generations. These experiences are guided by the observation of the behavior of fauna, flora, stars, the weather in the holy days and other very specific aspects of the lives of country people. Almost all country people living in the rural area know at least one experience, but the Prophets of Rain are known as the communicators of winter prophecies formulated from the observation of the experiences. The country person is identified as a Prophet of Rain because of his close relationship with nature and his ability to forecast. No matter if the prophecies are always right, he possesses a vital social role, as his practices contribute to prevent, ease and encourage other people. The main aim of this work is to analyze the role of the winter experiences for the country people in the Seridó Potiguar. In this sense, we sought to understand to what extent this knowledge still orients the productive practices of farmers living in this region and identify which factors instigate the observation of winter experiences nowadays. 241 questionnaires were applied to farmers in the rural cities of Acari, Caicó, Parelhas and Lagoa Nova and interviews were conducted with 15 Prophets in the Seridó. The methodological framework of this work is the analysis of content proposed by Bardin (2010). In this study area, the experiences exert influence and relevance to the country people in the Seridó, because they consider them as a way to ease their anguishes face the possible drought in the region. The major role of the Prophet is to feed the hope of country people for better days, rather than contribute for the organization of the productive activities. Among the interviewed people, the forecast from the observation of winter experiences have greater credibility than the meteorological and disseminated by media. The Prophets of Rain base their prophecies on the set of natural elements present in the environment. Many factors stimulate the winter experiences by the Prophets nowadays, as cultural transmission, age, relationship with nature, level of education, faith, among others, but specially the productive activities (agriculture and cattle raising) and the droughts. The winter means abundance and happiness in this region and the experience is one of the ways that people find to minimize the anxiety and, according to their possibilities, to prepare for a year of droughts or for winter

Efeitos de fungicidas alternativos em folhas de Carthamus tinctorius L. (Asteraceae), potencial espécie para cultivo em agricultura familiar

The currently main development model on global society is driven by an economic rationality that endangers the environment and social justice. More and more, attention to this way of production and consumption is increasing, boosting research for sustainable development, with an environmental rationality that can harmonize nature preservation and welfare of all socioeconomic classes. One of the efforts on this sense is changing the sources supplying the energy demand, replacing fossil fuels for renewable and cleaner sources, such as biofuels. Carthamus tinctorius (safflower) is an oilseed crop with potential for biodiesel production, with good oil yield and chemical profile, allied to good adaptation to climates such like the northeastern semiarid lands of Brazil. With public policies fomentation, the use of this species may be an interesting alternative for family farming. In farming in general, the use of pesticides to prevent and combat diseases and plagues is common, which is not a sustainable practice. Thus, there are researched alternative, less dangerous substances. In this study, it was aimed to assess if neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf extract (20% m/v) and Bordeaux mixture (copper sulfate) have effects on safflower. It was also aimed to verify acceptance of farmers on safflower crop in Apodi, a municipality in Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil, in view of it being localized in the aimed region for this crop cultivation. Besides that, understanding that the farmers’ knowledge and inclination to adopt the crop is fundamental for the introduction of this species and socioeconomic growth due to its exploration. In addition, a booklet with basic information on safflower was produced. In the field experiment, the fungicides were pulverized on plants cultivated in field experimental plots, with collection of leaf samples for analysis on anatomy, cuticle, and epicuticular wax morphology, the protective layer that interfaces with the surrounding ambient. In Apodi, forty-five farmers from Potiguar Cooperative of Apiculture and Sustainable Rural Development (COOPAPI) underwent semi-structured interviews, which also addressed their assessment on currently cultivated crops and perception of pesticide uses and sustainable alternatives. After comparing using analysis of variance, it was found that there was no difference between treatments in the experiment, as well as no anatomical or morphological modifications. Safflower acceptation among farmers was wide, with 84% of interviewees believing in a perspective of good incomes. The current scenario, comprised of low crop diversity, fragile in face of droughts and plagues, can partially explain this opinion. The booklet was effective in catching people attention for the species potential. There was wide acknowledgement on the importance of alternative pesticides, justified by health security. Based on the assessed parameter in the results of this research, the treatments here utilized may be recommended as fungicides for safflower. Given the crop susceptibility to fungi in heavy rainy period, it is advised that its potential introduction on the region shall be focused on semiarid areas.