Avaliação do programa “Circuito Sul-mineiro de Cafeicultura” nas regiões Sul e Sudoeste do estado de Minas Gerais

Aiming at the maintenance of the prominence of the South Minas coffee culture in the national scenario, the state of Minas Gerais, by means of its public institutions, has created a regional development program to meet the main problems concerning regional coffee production. With that purpose, the Southern Minas Ambit of Coffee culture was established, in search of the following objectives: to improve the quality of coffee, keep and create new employments, increase yield, reduce production costs and, as a consequence, improve the coffee farmers’ income. Nevertheless, in spite of the importance of such program as a subside for the solution of the problems concerning to coffee production of the Southern and Southeastern regions of the state of Minas Gerais, it has not, as of yet, been evaluated. Therefore, this work was conducted with a view to evaluating the Southern Minas Ambit of Coffee Culture, by taking into account a methodological approach oriented by different research methods as to the results achieved. By this research, it was stressed that the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods proved to be an adequate and complementary approach to extract data and evaluate the program under focus. Also verified were evidences that the objectives stated by the Program were partially achieved, based on the perceptions of coffee farmers, they who are the direct users of the Program.