PRODUCTIVE RESTRUCTURING AND ITS EFFECTS ON FRUIT PRODUCTION IN THE BAIXO-ACU IRRIGATED PERIMETER (RN)

Abstract

The productive restructuring process, carried out since 1980s and 1990s, had has a profound effect on a global scalefor both the countries of central capitalism and those of peripheral capitalism, such as Brazil. In Brazil's case, it has had the strongest impact in the Southeast Region, where the industry was more central, butgiven the fact that the economy is integrated, it also affected other regions of the country. The Northeast, which has been a center for state intervention since the late 1950s, through regional planning and tax incentives, has begun to receive, in a selective, service-based and spatially concentrated way, investments from large national and transnational enterprises to meet the demands of domestic and foreign markets. In the state of Rio Grande do Norte, this productive restructuring process was more intense in various economic sectors. In agriculture, irrigated cultivation of tropical fruits in the semiarid regiongained importance, forming the so-called Assu/MossoroIntegrated Development Hub, aimed at the supply the domestic and international markets. In order to grasp the changes triggered by the restructuring process with irrigated fruit production in Rio Grande do Norte and, in particular, in the semiarid region of the state, the Baixo-Acu Irrigated Perimeter was taken as empirical reference for this study. To achieve this goal, in addition to a bibliographic and documentary review, we conducted a survey of secondary data and field research with exploratory visits and interviews with the agents responsible for the Perimeter and irrigation producers.