The alcohol plan and the development of Northeast Brazil

Abstract

The Alcohol Plan was implemented in Brazil in 1974 with the purpose of supplying an alternative to soaring gasoline prices and to boosting the sugar cane industry of NE Brazil. Ten years later, an assesment of the plan shows that emphasis on sugar cultivation has substracted land formerly occupied by other crops, monopolized the utilization of newly opened lands, and furthered land ownership concentration. The alleged boost to employment is also doubtful, for the pressures on production efficiency have led to mechanization, hence, to labor reduction. However, the seasonal character of the employment still requires a number of workers who have been drawn from rural areas and live now in poor settlements near the sugar fields or in city slums. The plan has enhanced traditional structures in NE Brazil.