National Policy, and analyses the effectiveness of Gorutuba Irrigation Public Project, in the north of Minas Gerais. The methodology is the ex post facto evaluation. Throught a quasi experimental model, by means of multivariate statistics, the Porteirinha municipality, beneficiated by irrigation project, compared with non beneficiary municipalities (control group). The Porteirinha municipality was jointed in the cluster 6, with other 13 municipals, all of the North of Minas Gerais state, what can be interpreted as an evidence of the model for control group construcion's good performance. This research showed that irrigation project partially reaches expected results. The results of this study reinforce the importance of irrigated agriculture for regional development through the impacts in the agricultural production, in employment generation and population growth. Although the indicators of municipalities reflected the occurrence of economic growth, there was no improving of social indicators of Porteirinha (municipality benefited).
evaluation of public policy; irrigation project; impact assessment; socioeconomic indicators
