The Semiarid region of the Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

The semiarid region contains 1134 municipals with a population of 21.4million inhabitants, of what, in 2010, 62% lived in their cities. Brazil reached an urbanization index of 85%. Signs are that the semiarid region will converge to the Brazilian index in a short period. Two types of agriculture describe the region. One of them is the irrigated agriculture with strong links to international and national markets. By year, it exports around half billion dollars. Top technology, huge investments in irrigation, farm implements and high return per dollar invested characterize it. The other one is the non-irrigated agriculture with very low yields, stagnated and with no prospects of escaping from poverty. Except from irrigated areas, poverty dominated the rural scenarios, and this true for the farms greater or smaller than one hundred hectares. Technology in conjunction with irrigation explains the huge concentration of farm gross income. Alternatively, it explains why a small number of farms accounted for most of gross income and the majority of them accounted for about nothing. One of the consequences of poverty is the migration from the semiarid to other regions of Brazil and from rural areas to their cities. The rate of migration is smaller than the Brazilian one, and poverty is one of the reasons for it. However, signs are that the two rates are converging.