About

(2014-2017) This study aims to develop technical material to support an immediate action plan, proposing measures aimed at implementing the initiatives necessary for the Federal Government to act for the development of irrigated agriculture in Brazil, in the period 2020-2023 , thus serving as a subsidy to the actions of the Ministry of Regional Development (MDR). The basis of the study brings the methodological structure and the assumptions of territorial analysis developed by the Public Policy Group (GPP) of ESALQ/USP, via the Luiz de Queiroz Agrarian Studies Foundation (FEALQ), the same consulting team of the studies “Territorial analysis for the development of irrigated agriculture in Brazil”[1] e “Promotion of Integrated Management and Sustainable Use of Water Resources in Rural Areas”[two], improving and incorporating variables capable of indicating the most relevant factors that interfere in the configuration and performance of policies aimed at irrigated agriculture.

 

Even positioning itself among the ten countries with the largest irrigated area in the world, Brazil still has enormous potential for the expansion and intensification of irrigated agriculture. This potential is justified by different interests, which are driven by: (i) efficiency gains and risk reduction in agricultural production; (ii) by promoting social and economic development in regions that are favorable to the intensification of production or limited by the scarcity of rain; (iii) the reduction of environmental impacts, such as deforestation and reduction of biodiversity, given the lower need to expand the agricultural area in view of the higher productivity of irrigated crops; and (iv) food security, considering the possibility of efficient production close to consumption centers and in a greater range of climatic conditions.

 

In this context, the MDR places itself as a protagonist capable of, as a public sector, boosting regional development through planning the expansion and intensification of irrigated agriculture, strategic to increase the supply of products, improve production levels, productivity, income and employment, both in rural areas and for urban-industrial sectors directly or indirectly linked to the complex of activities, in addition to contributing to the preservation of biomes, by reducing the pressure to expand the agricultural frontier by increasing the productivity of the areas in production.
 

[1] Study carried out by FEALQ within the scope of the Technical Cooperation Project IICA/BRA/08/002, at the request of the then Ministry of Integration (MI). Finished in 2014.
[two] Study carried out by FEALQ within the scope of the Technical Cooperation Project IICA/BRA/02/2015, on request from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA). Finished in 2017.