We study the fermionic Schwinger effect in two dimensional de Sitter
spacetime. To do so we first present a method to semiclassically compute the
number of pairs created per momentum mode for general time dependent fields. In
addition the constant electric field is studied in depth. In this case
solutions for the Dirac equation can be found and the number of pairs can be
computed using the standard Bogoliubov method. This result is shown to agree
with the semiclassical one in the appropriate limit. The solutions are also
used to compute the expectation value of the induced current. Comparing these
results to similar studies for bosons we find that while the results agree in
the semiclassical limit they do not generally. Especially there is no
occurrence of a strong current for small electric fields.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure, V2:small changes and some references added,
version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.