MENDONÇA, J. R. N.; MENDONÇA, José Ricardo Nunes.
Résumé:
The idea of setting man on the land, reduce vulnetability to drought, developing
the economy of the "sertão", reduce regional inequalities and adapt man to the semi-arid
conditions, has been setting up since the end of the nineteenth century until the present, into narratives circulated in order to develop and modernize the economy of the Northeast of Brazil, as well as ensuring the control of populations, especially those located in arid áreas. The interventions of the state in this region were made by public policies, generated from disputes between the elites (politicai and landfarmers) and the popular classes, mediated by knowledge of the technical staff of the State which had on target the poor population. In this context the irrigation policy was created and with it the public irrigation perimeters, and among them, Irrigated Perimeter of Sumé (PIS), located in Sumé, in Cariri region of the Paraíba State, locus of empirical research. The PIS and other irrigated perimeters have been established as part of a government program that aimed, on one hand, to examine the viability of irrigation as "the solution" for the development of semi-arid area by promoting irrigated agriculture, moreover, setting family farmers in less developed áreas and create a rural middle class. For this, the technicians of DNOCS began to manage the activities of not only production but also the lives of settlers. Between the years 1970 and 1983 the PIS, after its installation, has experienced years of glory, producing industrial tomatoes and corn, which was marketed under the Peixe Industry of Pesqueira, in the state of Pernambuco. After this phase, with the changes, the project entered into the irrigation process of decay. as within the state, restricting investment, reforrning institutions and incorporating new words - local sustainable
development, combating drought, live together with the drought, alternative technologies, etc, as within the perimeter, lack of households of irrigantes families to drive organizations
(cooperatives, technical assistance), created by DNOCS to support the activities in the PIS. The objective of this work is to analyze the social processes that contributed to the above moments of glory and decadence, experienced by the PIS, guided by the following research questions: the position of the actors - who won and who lost with the creation of these projects for irrigation? How the technical knowledge and scientific knowledge is put forward the question of how much "big irrigation" as the hydraulic solution has worked to develop áreas that have little or no economic dynamism? What mechanisms and strategies for beneficiary families of the PIS are designed to remain in the area, and what are the expectations of them regarding the Project.
