This study evaluates the socioeconomic impacts of the 1997 Brazilian Program of Land Solidarity Reform on two rural communities in Ceará Brazil. To accomplish this, we contrasted job and income data collected from 1996, before the Program’s inception, with similar data from 1998 and 1999. We also calculated a Human Development Index (Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano--HDI) and a Life Condition Index (Índice de Condição de Vida - ICV) for the two communities for the period between July 1998 and June 1999. Primary data were gathered by a survey applied to the sample communities. The results showed that the Reform had its strongest positive impact on producer incomes and employment in the community economically based on irrigated agriculture, Barra I. The earnings of an average farmer farming irrigated crops in Barra I were 0.571 of a Brazilian minimum wage, above the State of Ceará’s poverty line of 0.487 minimum wage, and above the incomes of dry-land crop farmers in Cacimba Nova, the other studied community (0.085 minimum wage). The values of the two calculated indices were below the United Nations Development Program’s HID values for a country or region considered to be at a reasonable level of development (0.8). We also found that the producers from these communities produced reasonably well and made good use of technical and financial support, even though they had a low level of education.
Socioeconomic evaluation; land reform; State of Ceará
