Watering Brazil’s Desert

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the drought agency agronomists who established irrigated smallholder colonies and agricultural extension posts in the sertão, highlighting the challenges they faced from several quarters: civil engineers whose projects competed with theirs for federal funds; elites who opposed the land expropriation and empowerment of marginal farmers inherent in any irrigated smallholding project; and sertanejo farmers who did not readily embrace agronomists’ recommendations for more intensive cultivation methods. The leading figures in this story are IFOCS agronomists José Augusto Trinidade and José Guimarães Duque, a vigorous promoter of dry-farming techniques. Sources include folk poetry (cordéis) and folk songs from the mid-twentieth century about drought and development in the sertão—notably the popular ballads by northeastern musician Luiz Gonzaga—along with a range of reports and materials that were produced by drought agency agronomists to promote irrigated smallholding.