ABSTRACT The planned economic development, under conditions of rapid urbanization and demographic pressure led to the implementation of the PROVARZEAS-KFW Irrigation program in the Espirito Santo state, Brazil, in order to face the challenge of food security (supply) and of related social problems. To determine whether or not the sustainability of this modernization process is feasible, an effort was made to evaluate this program both technically and socio-economically. The results showed, in general terms, the use of an un-sustainable cycle in irrigated production, as much from an agronomic as from an socio-economic perspective. The “extractive” nature of continuous cultivation, to recover investments (production costs), tends to reduce the efficiency of technological options, narrowing the production expansion cycle and disturbing the ecological equilibrium. This situation, derived from inadequate macro-economic and agricultural policies, raised unitary costs, reduced liquid income and induced de-capitalization and farmers' insolvency. In conclusion, the PROVARZEAS-KFW Irrigation program has not offered an intrinsically sustainable production system because of lack of synchronization with the producers' needs and demands, from a holistic, systemic and endogenous perspective.