Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 10, No. 2; 2020 ISSN 1925-4725 E-ISSN 1925-4733 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 15 The Use of Digester and the Spread of Sustainable Actions in Semiarid Region of Ceará José Falcão Sobrinho 1 , Vanessa Campos Alves 2 , Thaylany Matias Magalhães 2 , Gilmário Rodrigues do Nascimento 2 & Emanuela Lima Lutif Pinto 2 1 Associate professor in the geography master’s course for the Universidade Estadual Vale do Acaraú (UVA), Sobral, Ceará, Brazil 2 Researcher for the laboratory of researches and extension of the semiarid region, UVA, Sobral, Ceará, Brazil Correspondence: José Falcão Sobrinho, Associate professor in the geography master’s course for the Universidade Estadual Vale do Acaraú (UVA), Sobral, Ceará, Brazil. E-mail: falcao.sobral@gmail.com Received: May 20, 2020 Accepted: August 8, 2020 Online Published: August 19, 2020 doi:10.5539/jms.v10n2p15 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v10n2p15 Abstract The objective of this manuscript is to present comments about the social technology involving the production of renewable energy using the digesters implemented by the Paulo Freire project in some country estates in Massapê and Jordão. For this, visits were necessary for these two municipalities, where it is possible to realize the importance of these digesters for the local people. Furthermore, some aspects affect the production in the field, such as the interaction among types of social technology and the importance of available natural resources for obtaining results that impact positively on the local economy and sustainable rural development. The diffusion of rural and environmentally sustainable development actions goes through the guarantee of resources for the development and autonomy of the population. Keywords: digester, rural development, social technology 1. Introduction The landscapes approached through the history of semiarid sertões have always revealed a significant influence of a hot climate that submits nature and human life to an aggravating shortage of natural resources. The real character of sertões started presenting its first change traces with the collaboration of public policies and third sector organizations, which made possible the implementation of technology to support life in the semiarid region. The focus of this technology is on ways of obtaining water for families, raising animals, growing crops, managing land and producing renewable energy for the most varied use. Public policies have recently allocated significant resources to the semiarid region, aiming to promote rural development more sustainably and improve the farmers and their families’ lives (Küster & Martí, 2009, p. 13). Besides being sustainable, technology must be affordable and easily adaptable to both social and spatial contexts to be useful and assimilated to the local reality. Thus, the drought effects would be softer during the dry season and, not only the quality of life would be better but also the autonomy and livelihood of local families. Sustainability, according to Cabestré, Graziade and Polesel (2008), is the relationship between the economic and ecologic systems in which human life would continue indefinitely and whose effects would have limits without destroying the diversity, complexity and functions of the ecological life support system. The objective here is to present comments regarding the digester, which is a form of reducing environmental pollution and producing biogas and biofertilizer. The devices were set in some country estates in the municipalities of Massapê/CE, in Trapiá, and Jordão, in Serra do Rosário, establishing a relationship between their local context and function. The implementation of digesters in that area proved to be significant and feasible. 2. Discussion The studied areas were a rural community called Trapiá, in Massapê, and the Serra do Rosário, which is a district of Jordão that belongs to Sobral. The responsible for this project was the Paulo Freire project, which organizes actions to fight against poverty in rural communities to improve the standard of living of farmers and families who have a low Human Development Index (HDI) (Figure 1). The project receives financial support from the Government of Ceará and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).