Irrigation perimeters Salitre

Abstract

This summary addresses considerations on the evolution of the Irrigated Perimeter of Salitre, located in Juazeiro, state of Bahia. Firstly, irrigated agriculture in Brazil is approached from a historical viewpoint, mentioning laws and some of the state planning on this issue. Irrigated agriculture in the São Francisco river valley is put in a historical context, focusing the presence of the federal public authorities, with the creation of public irrigated perimeters, which changed the socio-economic, political and environmental scenery of the region. The Irrigated Perimeter of Salitre is presented as being the result of a practical approach of a new promotion of public irrigated perimeters, focusing entrepreneurship of future irrigators, as well as the articulation of support by development agents. The economic and social outcomes, the technical and productive advances and the celerity in the deployment of irrigated plots for small producers are referred to as prominent points. The conclusion reinforces the argument that the implementation of public irrigated perimeters is not the result of an isolated action but rather a strategy to facilitate the interaction of several factors for the development of the most important sector of the regional economy.