Dinâmicas fundiárias no Curimataú Paraibano: vetores de fragmentação da grande propriedade no município de Cuité-PB (1970-2018).

Abstract

The historical model of the large property in the semiarid microregion of Western Curimataú of Paraíba, mainly in the municipality of Cuité, has been through a continuous process of desintegration and fragmentation. This has been observed since the 1940s with an increase from the 1970s onwards, caused by the cotton and sisal industry crises, for which local owners can not develop alternatives for the maintainance of the control and profitability of the lands. This context is worsened in the final years of the 1990s and the beginning of 2000s, when the processes of sharing the inheritance of lands begins among families belonging to the last large landowners of the twentieth century in the municipality. This fact represents one more important vector in the understanding of the fenomenon of dissolution and loss of large property representativeness. These heirs, facing land depreciation, land withdrawals, with a more urbanized generational profile and far from farming activities, are no longer willing to innovate with possible projects in order to reach a production return in the lands. Seen in these terms, the families start to visualize the land reform policies, as for example, the National Program for Land Credit(Programa Nacional de Crédito Fundiário) as well as idenizations for expropriated lands by INCRA, as opportunities to recapitalize with the support of the State. Therefore, these combined vectors keep creating a land dynamics, sometimes gathering, other times splitting the lands. As a consequence, it modifies the land profile and the way the land is distributed in the municipality of Cuité.