Petrolina

Petrolina is a city located in the state of Pernambuco, in the country of Brazil. The population was 218,336 in 2004 in a total area of 4,737 km². [http://www.ambientebrasil.com.br/municipios/index.php3?action=imprimir_item&item_id=2998]

Location

It is situated on the left bank of the São Francisco River across from its twin city of Juazeiro, Bahia. The two cities, making up an urban area of almost 500,000 people, are connected by a modern bridge. Sobradinho dam, enclosing Sobradinho Lake, the second largest artificial lake in the world, is located 26 kilometers upriver.Fact|date=February 2007

Road connections are made by BR-407, connecting Feira de Santana, near Salvador, and Picos located in the state of Piauí. There are railroad connections in Juazeiro made by the Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica. The Petrolina airport is mainly for domestic flights (daily flights to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco) and the exportation of fruits produced by irrigation agro-poles.

Distances

FROM

Salvador - (319 miles)

Recife 770 km - (479 miles)

Brasília 1550 km - (963 miles)

Rio de Janeiro 1927 km - (1198 miles)

São Paulo 2246 km - (1396 miles)

Climate

The regional climate is very hot and dry. Petrolina is located in the semi arid belt from Northeastern Region, that is characterized with low rainfall. The precipitation have not good distribution on time and space. The rainy season begins on December month, ending at the May. After that, the climate still dry until December.

The average daily temperature varies little throughout the year. Average daily temperature recorded in 1996 and 1997 was 25.8 °C, ranging from 34.4 to 23.2 °C. In the hottest months (from September to April), the average temperature was 27.3 °C and ranged from 35.6 °C to 22.5 °C. In the cooler months (May to August), the average temperature was 24.8 °C and ranged between 31.5 °C and 20.0 °C. This data does not take into account some extreme periods when the daily temperature exceeded 40 °C and did not drop below 33 °C at night. Annual precipitation was 650 mm per year during these years although it can vary between 100 and 900 mm.

The Miracle of Irrigation and the Transformation of Petrolina

The growth of Petrolina and its sister-city Juazeiro is the result of the construction of the Sobradinho dam and the abundant availability of water for irrigation in these desert soils. Once sleepy river towns dependent on subsistence agriculture, these two cities are now bustling metropolises. The region is perhaps the only one in the interior of the Northeast that has gained population through in-migration. While the population in the states of Pernambuco and Bahia as a whole increased by 50.1% between 1970 and 1990, it more than doubled in Petrolina-Juazeiro

In contrast to the rest of the Northeast of Brazil, a region of 1.5 million km² with poor soils, semiarid climate, and periodic droughts that has long been viewed as Brazil's foremost "problem area," the Petrolina-Juazeiro nucleus is a great contrast of dynamic irrigated agriculture, agro-processing industries (tomato and fruit-processing) and services (mainly input supplying, banking, and consulting), well known in Brazil as the most important producer and exporter of high quality fruits and vegetables in the country.

For many years the economy of the Valley of the São Francisco was based on extensive cattle raising combined with subsistence farming.

Starting in the 1960s with the development policies implemented by the government, the valley soon became the beneficiary of important investments for economic development, translated into the construction of highways, increasing electrical energy, improvement in sanitation systems etc.

Investments made in the agricultural sector with the implantation of the irrigated sections of Bebedouro and Senador Nilo Coelho, in turn brought in the installation of factories connected to the regional agriculture base, especially producers of tomato paste, juices, textiles etc.

The Valley of the São Francisco is a privileged region for investments, since it now has an irrigated are of more than 1,200 square kilometres, excellent soil conditions, flat topography and a climate, which combines the small thermal variation with the low humidity of the air.

With these conditions, agriculture has grown by leaps and bounds with irrigated farming being the main source of income and jobs in Petrolina. The Petrolina-Juazeiro nucleus has turned into a producer of a wide range of irrigated high-value crops, including table grapes and mangos that are sold fresh to Europe and the United States, and other crops for the domestic market, including bananas, coconuts, guavas, passion fruit, melons, industrial tomatoes, watermelons, and onions, among others. Due to the miracle of irrigation, growers in Petrolina-Juazeiro produce 90% of the country's exports of mangos and 30% of table grapes, displacing the much more technologically developed states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul as the most important exporters of these products.

Main crops in planted area (2003)
*bananas: 38.24 km²
*coconut: 28 km²
*guava: 31.95 km²
*papaya: 0.84 km²
*mangos: 52 km²
*passion fruit: 1.28 km²
*beans: 38 km²
*watermelon: 3 km²
*melons: 0.8 km²
*corn: 40 km²Data are from [http://www.ibge.gov.br/cidadesat/default.php IBGE]

There is also a substantial cattle herd of 26,000 head, of which 4,400 are milking cows. There are 11,000 pigs, 8,000 donkeys, 63,000 goats, and 43,000 sheep. [http://www.ibge.gov.br/cidadesat/default.php]

External links

* [http://www.petrolina.pe.gov.br/ Prefeitura municipal de Petrolina]
* [http://www.portalpetrolina.com.br/ Portal Petrolina] With photos of the city
* [http://www.petrolinapalace.com.br/ Petrolina´s major hotel]
* [http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/latin_american_research_review/v038/38.1damiani.html A study of the success of Petrolina and Juazeiro]