Processo de modernização tecnológica na agricultura do Nordeste brasileiro.

Abstract

The process of technological modernization of Brazilian agriculture, given its uneven characteristics even among the regions of the country, was also differentiated within the regions themselves, among the states, among categories or social groups of producers and economical activities causing segmentation of the production. These differences are directly associated to the way this process was originated and produced in the country: a process amply subsidized and induced by the State. Starting from the presupposed methodological theory that the transformations that occurred in Brazilian agriculture and their consequences are very specific particular aspects, that can only be understood within a milestone o capitalistic expansion and reproduction, which, in the latest analysis, was what stimulated or promoted the transformations that need to be scientifically investigated. The main purpose of this research is t o analyze the process of technological modernization in the agriculture of Northeastern Brazil, focussing on the intervention of the State in this process and on the evolution of agriculture in the region, fundamentally since the beginning of the 70s when developmental policy began in the country differentiating regions in a process of "planned" intervention, trying with this to demonstrate the uneven f o rm of development in the agricultural aspect, however without attributing this problem simply and exclusively t o the secular problem of the droughts as many have done. The evolution of agriculture in the region was analyzed through the technical indexes, through the evolution of the chosen area and through the average produce of the main crops. Through the evolution of these indexes we came to the conclusion that there is an expressive technological imbalance between the Northeast and the rest of the country and that there is an extremely concentrated process of modernization within the region itself. In relation to the segmentation of the production, we came t o the conclusion that this process exists in the agriculture of the Northeastern region, but that the main factor that expresses this segmentation is the increase in the area of the cultivation that were privileged by the instruments of modernizing agricultural policies - the products of which are industrial raw materials, with prices determined by the International market, and whose main destiny is exportation or energy purposes, especially cocoa, sugar cane, soybeans, oranges and coffee. The cultivation of fruits in the Northeast is evaluated as a specific case, set apart by presenting significative rates of growth not only in the average produce but also in the area picked. The governmental subsidizing and the investments in infrastructure had and important role in the development of the cultivation of fruits in the region.