Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Os japoneses na Amazônia e sua contribuição ao desenvolvimento agrícola

2009; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.29327/233099.9.1-8

2316-4123

A. K. O. Homma,

Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

The japanese immigration in the Amazon started 21 years after the Kasato Maru ship brought the first immigrants to São Paulo, on june 18, 1908.The first colonists came for Tomé-Açu (1929), in the state of Pará and, in Maués (1930) and Parintins (1931), in the state of Amazonas.At the time that the japanese immigration started in the Amazon, the regional economy was essentially extrativist and in stagnation, due to the rubber crisis, which, some years before, was the third exportation product of Brazil.The success of the Japanese colonization rested on a model based on the introduction of resources from the exotic biodiversity, in a time when this was a normal behavior.Genetic resources of the Amazon were taken to other parts of the country and of the world and, in turn, the migrants brought exogenous genetic resources to their new land.The new development focus induced by the descendants of the japanese is based on the use of the local biodiversity associated with exotic plants introduced in the past and other more recent in an obscure way.Japan could substantially help the Amazon by the means of technical-scientific agreements that are complementary in the reclamation of degraded areas and of fishing areas, control of pollution of rivers, lumber technology and the use of biodiversity resources in the cosmetic related areas, pharmaceutical products and natural dyes, among others.In relation to exportation, there is the need to equilibrate the trade balance of the states of Amazonas, Pará and Maranhão with Japan, hindered by the imports of the Manaus Free Zone and by the low prices of natural products that are exported.