Brazil is the second world largest citrus producer, and the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) is the sixth largest national producer, with about 505 thousand tons of citrus fruits in 2014. The state's citrus chain has different characteristics, consisting mostly of small family-based farms. This study aimed to diagnose the production system used in Rio Grande do Sul, through a structured questionnaire composed of 19 questions of closed and open answers to 163 growers, residents in 35 locations in the RS, belonging to the regions Vales do Caí and Taquari, Alto Taquari, Alto Uruguai, Noroeste, Serra do Nordeste and Fronteira Oeste. The selected locations have the citrus industry as an important activity for the local economy and the number of interviewed farmers varied according to the existing cultivated area in each. The interviewed farmers in each city were selected by non-probability sampling and convenience, and the information obtained was planned, generating quantitative and qualitative data. There were features prevalent in the visited farms, such as aging of the rural population, low level of education of growers, mainly family labor employment and concern about the shortage of work observed in rural areas. However, they presented long experience in the citrus activity and obtain good yields, similar to the average recorded in the State. Index terms: citrus, diagnosis, family farming. Caracterização do sistema de produção em propriedades citrícolas do Rio Grande do Sul RESUMO O Brasil é o segundo maior produtor mundial de citros, sendo o Rio Grande do Sul (RS) o sexto maior produtor nacional, com cerca de 505 mil toneladas de frutas cítricas em 2014. A cadeia citrícola gaúcha possui características diferenciadas, constituída em sua maioria por pequenas propriedades de base familiar. O presente estudo objetivou a realização de um diagnóstico do sistema produtivo por meio da aplicação de questionário estruturado composto por 19 questões de

Huanglongbing (HLB), the most damaging disease of the citrus industry, is present in the Brazilian states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Paraná. The risks of introduction and spread of this A1 quarantine pest in citrus groves of the Rio Grande do Sul (RS) state were assessed based on a structured questionnaire composed of 27 questions applied to 163 growers in 35 municipalities. The locations were defined according to the economic relevance of citriculture, and the sample size (number of interviewed farmers) was proportional to the cultivated area in each municipality. A multi-criteria method was used to prioritize and assign weights to specific criteria associated with the different risks. Each farm was assigned to one of the four risk categories: low (0 to 0.25), medium (0.25 to 0.50), high (0.50 to 0.75) and very high (0.75 to 1.0). The estimated risks of HLB introduction and spread in RS were mostly medium to high across the regions and farms within regions. Two factors, the presence of HLB in neighbor countries and citrus fruit transport from other regions mostly accounted for the risk of introduction of HLB into RS. Following an eventual introduction, the lack of knowledge about this pathosystem and the little or no use of insecticides were identified as the main contributors of disease spread within the state.

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