218 THE FUTURE OF ARID LANDS 
Cy: Fertilizer 
insecticides ~All : 
Maren | Fertilizer Income Phosphate 
ae loiranenia eS Equipment eR 
| AGRESTE 
SERTAO 
(Cattle, etc.) 
<= Irrigation 
ATLANTIC OCEAN 
(Food, etc.), = 
eltmegation poe | « GE a 
= . a 
Irrigation | 2 MATA Oo 
eS ad SAA (Sugar) = 
= 
Labour 
om oe Meat 
PAULO AFONSOMPN oe) tena Se | 
Figure 14. Highly idealized diagram of a development scheme sug- 
gested for Pernambuco by Hans W. Singer. 
Such an investigation of existing patterns of areal interrelation 
furnishes a valuable basis for development plans. Economists 
point out that combined projects, which consider the various 
diversified parts of a region, are likely to be more productive than 
those that are confined to one particular type of landscape. 
The geographical approach can also provide a fuller compre- 
hension of the spatial relations obtaining between the drought- 
afflicted backlands and other areas. The study of such interre- 
gional patterns are fundamental to a precise formulation of long 
range development schemes of the type tentatively outlined by 
Hans Singer for the state of Pernambuco (8). This United Nations 
economist has put forward a plan, based on what are avowedly 
initial impressions, which endeavors to take advantage of the 
different potentialities of the zona da mata, where sugar cane pro- 
duction is concentrated; the agreste, fairly heavily populated, 
with much production of food crops; and the sertao, with pastoral 
activities and specialization in cotton and other dry land crops. The 
scheme takes into account the phosphate deposits (an estimated 40 
million tons of high grade calcium phosphate), recently discovered 
near Recife, an excellent port, and the energy supplied by the Paulo 
Afonso hydroplant, inaugurated January 1955 on the Sao Fran- 
cisco River. The accompanying, highly idealized, diagram is self- 
explanatory (Figure 14). 
Conclusion 
I hope to have brought out the fact that geography’s contribu- 
tion to the solution of problems of arid and semi-arid regions can 
be many sided and wide ranging. Geographers have been fully 
