Brazil offers family farmers BRL 71.6 bi under credit program
Brazilian President Lula has launched the family farming branch of the Plano Safra 2023–24 initiate, with BRL 71.6 billion in credit, up 34 percent up from last year’s program and the highest in this time series.
The total rises to BRL 77.7 billion considering other efforts unveiled for family agriculture, such as government purchases, technical assistance and rural extension services, the government reported.
Among the announcements during the lunch ceremony at the Planalto Palace Wednesday (Jun. 28) are lower interest for producers of the main food items on the Brazilian table, incentives for the purchase of machinery, more credit for farmers in the Brazil’s North and Northeast and for women producers, the inclusion of indigenous people and members of quilombola communities, and access to land.
“We’re trying to bridge the still wide gap between small and big [producers], those who work and those who own the companies that produce. This difference should no longer exist, otherwise the world is not worthwhile,” the president said in his address.
He also noted that the government will resume the minimum-price policy in food production and the purchase of surplus in case of super-harvests.
“You’ll do the planting and we’ll guarantee you get a minimum price, so that nobody is forced to face a loss in their harvest,” he said, also citing the work of the National Supply Company (CONAB) to prevent “a lack of food in this country and prices from skyrocketing.”
Another challenge, President Lula said, is to ensure access to land for those willing to produce, including the recognition of quilombola communities and the mapping of unproductive properties for land reform.
Environment
During the meeting, Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture Paulo Teixeira highlighted environmental protection as one of the pillars of the new Plano Safra. “We’re ready to benefit from this cycle, this new window opening for agro-ecology, for the production of healthy food, and also for restorative farming—a form of agriculture that brings water springs, riverside forests, and the protection areas back to life,” he declared.
Aristides Veras dos Santos, head of the National Confederation of Field Workers (CONTAG), said the plan “is not yet ideal,” adding, however, that is is “possible for the moment we are living.” He also called for easier access to funding from financial institutions.
“I hope we can have more and more resources for field workers to produce food with a fair price for us as well as for consumers,” he added.
General Coordinator of the National Confederation of Workers in Family Farming of Brazil (CONTRAF) Maria Josana de Lima Oliveira said that “support for family farming is key to bringing dignity and inclusion to production, as it addresses food insecurity in the field and increases the amount and the quality of food in urban areas—at a fair price.”
