REFORMA AGRÁRIA SOLIDÁRIA, ASSISTÊNCIA TÉCNICA E DESENVOLVIMENTO RURAL NO ESTADO DO CEARÁ¹

Abstract

In october of 1996, The Government of the state of Ceará in partnership with the World Bank, instituted its program for Soliday Agrarian Reform (Programa de Reforma Agraria Solidaria – PRAS). The initial sucess of this Program motivated the Federal Government, with continued technical and financial support from the World Bank, to create a similar program in five states of the Northeast region (Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Minas Gerais and Pernambuco). A similar program will he extended to other 13 states. The present research analyzes the probable impacts of PRAS, on quality of life indicators – IQV for participating producers and seeks to measure the degree of their satisfaction with technical assistence provided by the State Rural Extension Service – EMATER-CE. The data were collected from direct interviews with PRAS beneficiaries and the sample included 8 municipios of the State of Ceará. The major impacts upon quality of life are related to improvements in housing, sanititation and an increase in acesss to durable consumer goods. On the other hand, health and education improvements have little influence on the overall IQV. The contribution of rural extension service was mostly concentrated in techinical assistence to agricultural and livestock activities through extencionist visits...