Agricultural dynamics in the semi-arid Northeast region of Brazil: issues for natural resources management and territorial governance

Ceará State (Northeast Brazil) was recently affected by a severe multi-year drought (2012–2018) that had drastic societal consequences. The agricultural sector was particularly impacted and agricultural trajectories have evolved accordingly. The dairy sector has been strongly consolidated among family farmers, as seeming to offer greater resilience to drought than irrigated crops. However, the consequences of these important agricultural dynamics on natural resource management, and particularly water, have not been adequately studied. This study aimed to explore how agricultural trajectories have been transformed and how this has affected the sustainability of water, land, and forest resource management. It then suggests a territorial governance organization to discuss related issues and collectively try to solve them. This study emphasizes two main agricultural transformations: (i) the increase in mechanized permanent cropping systems substituting the traditional shifting agriculture system with forest fallow rotation, and (ii) increased fodder production through ’passive irrigation’ in lowlands and infiltration areas around dams. These processes support a strong dynamic of individual small dam building. The main issues of these transformations in terms of natural resource management concern soil health in a regional context of high vulnerability to desertification, and the strong mobilization of water in lowlands and small individual dams. Since these dams are located upstream of the State’s strategic dams, they weaken its water security and open the challenge of finding trade-offs between upstream-downstream regions, macro-micro water infrastructures and agricultural development-water supply. To contribute to meeting this challenge, three participatory governance platforms articulated from the State to the local territories are being tested in an attempt to negotiate collective trade-offs on the use of natural resources, decompartmentalize public action targeting rural territories, and promote a bottom-up approach to territorial development.