A cadeia produtiva do leite no semiárido cearense: uma análise geográfica a partir da Teoria Miltoniana

Abstract

The thesis proposal was successfully carried out based on a geographic analysis of the milk production chain, which had as its starting point the municipalities included in the National Integration Routes (ROTAS) program, specifically in the Ceará milk route. The premise of the aforementioned program is to propose strategies capable of promoting productive inclusion and sustainable development in Brazilian regions. Milton Santos' theoretical foundation, the circuit theory, despite being an urban study, was successfully chosen to be applied in rural areas. The study area of the milk route covers eighteen municipalities in Ceará that produce cow and goat milk. However, the application of the field research was limited to the following 5 municipalities in Ceará: Boa Viagem, Jaguaretama, Jaguaribe, Mombaça and Pedra Branca. The study provided a more detailed look at the local economic and social importance of milk production in the State of Ceará. The problem answered was: has the Ceará milk route promoted the local social and economic development of producers in the dairy sector? The hypotheses listed directly involve the producer and the development of the milk production chain. The general and specific objectives are to perform an analysis of the milk production chain from the perspective of Milton's theory of circuits, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the Milk Route program, discuss the contributions of the federal education network in the interior as partners of the producer and show the results of the articulation of the support network for the producer. The expected scientific results were achieved, showing that the route as a state policy benefits small producers in a positive way, directly or indirectly, such as productivity, access to credit, and care for herds. It also brought visibility to the milk sector in Ceará through registration, which is another way to boost properties. The interiorization of education through the Federal Institute of Ceará, Boa Viagem Campus and the Center for Innovation and Diffusion of Technologies for the Semiarid Region, as intermediaries, proved to be effective and well evaluated by other partner institutions. The essential thing is that the research gathered detailed and specific data about the livestock sector in Ceará, which is not the case in official research, and today we have relevant information about the milk segment.