Avaliação da presença institucional da política pública de irrigação no semiárido brasileiro

Public irrigation policy in Brazil aims to promote socioeconomic development focusing on economically disadvantaged regions that have agricultural potential. In the Northeast region, fruit exploitation plays an important role in the production. Irrigation projects in this region is an essential tool for income distribution, especially considering small and medium scale production. This study evaluates the impact of the institutional presence of public irrigation projects on the value of fruit production, located in the semiarid region of Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia and Minas Gerais states. Econometric assessment used the method of Propensity Score Matching combined with entropy weights to measure the economic impact of the intervention. The results showed a positive and statistically significant effect of the institutional presence of irrigation projects on the value of fruit production in the studied region. The cost-benefit analysis via educated guess reported that, for each unit of Real invested by the government in public irrigation policy in the Northeast, there was a return of R$ 12.88, which justifies public spending on the irrigation policy.