Northern Parana, Brazil: An Example of Organized Regional Development

Abstract

N rORTHERN Parana, Brazil's newest and richest coffee-producing region, is an outstanding example of planned economic development in subtropical areas. No mere offshoot of Sao Paulo's earlier westward expansion of coffee production, this area represents the most successful experiment to date in coordinated regional planning and colonization. Given the lack of capital for providing adequate transportation facilities and the general reluctance of the Brazilian to settle in the interior, past attempts to develop the sertao have followed a common pattern. It has been a pattern too often designed primarily to force a filling up of the empty spaces rather than to provide a substantial base for expanding settlement. Colonies consisting largely of foreign immigrants were located at certain points considered physically suitable for agriculture. Frequently, no integration with outside markets was contemplated by the colonizing agency; the colonies were expected to be self-sufficient, raising subsistence crops for their own use. Small wonder that many such ill-planned ventures perished or lagged; only where the areas were subsequently tapped by transportation lines was growth possible.I It was the lucrative crop of coffee that prompted positive development in a part of the Brazilian interior. The material facilities and the people attracted thereto formed the base for a stable expansion westward from the Sao Paulo nucleus.2 The development well illustrates the importance of con-