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During the past 20 years, most settlements of the Brazilian Agrarian Reform (AR) have been established in or near better-preserved natural ecosystems, where environmental impact is likely to be negative and contribute to natural resources degradation. The objective of this work is providing a first, comprehensive insight of the impacts related to the environmental quality of these settlements, based on the primary survey of 4,340 AR settlements installed between 1985 and 2001. An index was calculated to integrate different aspects of environmental impacts in one single number. The index showed significant regional variation, with lower values (low environmental quality) for the North and Northeast of Brazil, intermediate values for the Central-west and Southeast, and high values for the South. Environmental impacts resulting from AR and settlement creation are slowly decreasing with time, but are still very high in absolute values. The lack of protection of riparian areas, cultivation of legal reserves, and deforestation, are the main concerns related to environmental impacts.

A cultura da cana-de-açúcar é destaque no cenário agrícola do Brasil, sendo cultivada em vários tipos de ambiente (associação de clima e solo). O estudo das respostas dos diferentes cultivares em cada ambiente de produção auxilia a maximizar a exploração econômica da cultura. Neste contexto, três experimentos em blocos completos casualizados com quatro repetições foram delineados para determinar as produtividades de colmos e a pol % cana de nove cultivares de cana-de-açúcar em dois solos: Planossolo mesotrófico textura arenosa/média (PL) e Podzólico Vermelho Amarelo mesotrófico textura arenosa/média (PV). Os cultivares foram colhidas em três épocas: maio, agosto e outubro de 1997. As produtividades de colmos foram superiores (PSugarcane is of prime importance in Brazilian agriculture, being cultivated over a range of environments (climate and soil). Studying cultivars responses in different environments helps to improve and maximize the crop economic output. In this context, three experiments were performed in a 9x2 randomized block design with four replicates to assess differences in stalk and the percentage of sucrose of nine sugarcane cultivars growing in two soils, Tipic Kandiaqult (PL) and Arenic Kandiudult (PV). The cultivars were harvested during three months (May, August and October/1997). Overall the PV soil permitted higher stalk productivities (P

Avaliou-se quantitativamente a área basal de uma pastagem de capim-elefante (Pennisetum purpureum, Schum.) cv. 'Napier' através de três métodos, designados como: trena (T), quadrado (Q) e fotografia (F). A avaliação foi efetuada numa área de 1.800 m2, onde realizaram-se 10 amostragens para cada um dos métodos. A porcentagem de área basal média dos três métodos testados foi de 44 %, sendo que as comparações entre T e Q e Q e F não diferiram estatisticamente (P>0,05). A porcentagem de área basal determinada pelo método T (47,6 %) foi superior (PThe basal cover of elephantgrass (Pennisetum purpureum, Schum.) cultivar `Napier' was determined using three methods: line-transect (L), quadrat (Q), and photography (P). Ten samples for each method were collected in a 1,800 m2-plot. Mean values of the basal area for the three methods were 44 %, and no statistic difference (P>0.05) was detected between L and Q and Q and P methods. Differences observed between L and P methods were statistically significant (P