Workers ask for lower interest rates to produce food in Brazil

At the launch of the Crop Plan for Family Agriculture 2023/2024 for the Northeast Region of Brazil this Monday (17), the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag) asked for a reduction in interest rates to finance food production in the country. Currently, interest rates are 4% per annum for loans aimed at the production of small productive units, the so-called family farming.

The president of Contag, Aristides Santos, praised the advances in the current plan, which increased by 34%, compared to the previous harvest, the total resources destined to credit for the sector, set at R$ 71.6 billion for the National Program of Strengthening Family Agriculture (Pronaf) from 2023/2024. However, for the representative of agricultural workers, it is necessary to reduce interest rates.

“(President) Lula every time he meets me he says ‘talk to the farmers led by Contag to produce more beans, more rice’. And I told him before the plan: approve the way Contag proposed that we are going to have more beans and more rice. Now, with 4% to plant rice and beans, it is possible that we will not reach the goals and the dream that President Lula wants”, stated Santos.

Contag had asked for an interest rate of 2% per year for the production of foods such as rice, beans, cassava, tomatoes, milk and eggs, among others. The Crop Plan for Family Farming launched at the end of June this year by the federal government reduced the program’s interest from 5% to 4% per year.

For the president of Contag, it is possible to lower interest rates even further this harvest, “just talk a little better there at the Farm”, pondered Aristides, for whom the reduction of the basic interest rate by the Central Bank is a matter of time. “The Central Bank will not resist pressure from the productive sectors of Brazil,” he said.

Present at the launch of the program in the Northeast, the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira, pondered that the Selic rate of 13.75% per year maintained by the Central Bank restricts the release of more resources.

“We want to go back to producing much more rice, beans, manioc, lettuce, vegetables and fruits in Brazil to put on the table of the Brazilian people. Therefore, our request to the president of the Central Bank: stop denying reality and lower interest rates in Brazil! Because if he lowers interest rates in Brazil in August, we will make much more resources available for family farming”, said Teixeira.

The Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, added that interest is 0.5% per year for Pronaf B in the Northeast, a line of credit that serves micro-producers. The government increased, in this Crop Plan, the limit of the annual gross income of the farmer entitled to these resources from R$ 23 thousand to R$ 40 thousand. The Pronaf B financing ceiling went from BRL 6,000 to BRL 10,000 per production unit. Contag had asked for a limit of BRL 30,000 in funding for Pronaf B.

Technical assistance

Contag also asked for more resources for technical assistance which, according to the organization, is insufficient. “Without greater resources, we will not be able to make the oriented credit and provide the support that the family farmer needs”, stated Aristides Santos. The federal government allocated BRL 200 million for technical assistance and rural extension for the 2023/2024 season, an amount considered insufficient by the Confederation of Agricultural Workers.

Ceará’s Secretary of Agrarian Development, Moisés Braz, informed that 80% of the state’s farmers still do not have technical assistance “effective and capable of being accompanied”. Another problem pointed out by the secretary is the lack of mechanization of family farming in the Northeast. “While the vast majority of producers and family farmers in the South have agricultural mechanization, we are still working with the sickle and the hoe”, stated the secretary from Ceará.

In order to increase technical assistance resources for family farming, the Minister of Agrarian Development Paulo Teixeira suggested that a fund financed by the Rural Territorial Tax, levied on rural properties in the country, be created. Regarding the mechanization of family farming, Teixeira informed that measures are being taken to increase the use of equipment in food production. “We called universities, federal institutes and Embrapa to develop equipment closer to family farming”, said Teixeira.

At the end of his speech during the launch of the Crop Plan for Family Agriculture in the Northeast region, the minister promised to improve the program. “I imagine this is the beginning. All the difficulties we want to face together. But the call for you is: take this credit, resume this possibility and continue to promote this strength of family farming”, concluded Paulo Teixeira.

The federal government estimates that the Crop Plan for Family Agriculture 2023/2024 should benefit 1 million Northeastern farmers.