Family farming will have lower interest rates for food production

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched, this Wednesday (28), in Brasília, the Crop Plan for Family Agriculture 2023/2024, with R$ 71.6 billion earmarked for rural credit under the National Program for Strengthening Agriculture Familiar (Pronaf). The value is 34% higher than that announced in the last harvest and the highest in the historical series.

According to the government, together with other actions announced for family farming, such as public procurement, technical assistance and rural extension, Minimum Price Guarantee Policy for Sociobiodiversity Products (PGPM-Bio), Crop Guarantee and Proagro Mais, the volume invested reaches R$ 77.7 billion.

Lower interest rates for those who produce food that goes to the table of Brazilians and biodiversity, incentives for the purchase of agricultural machinery, expansion of productive microcredit for family farmers in the North and Northeast, productive inclusion of indigenous peoples and quilombolas, more credit for rural women and access to land are also among the highlights announced in a ceremony at the Planalto Palace.

“What we are doing is trying to reduce the inequality that is still very large between the small (producer) and the large, between those who work and those who own the companies that produce work. There is a difference that cannot continue to exist, otherwise the world is not worth living”, said Lula in his speech.

He also pointed out that the government will resume minimum price policy for food production and the purchase of surpluses in case of superharvests.

“You are going to plant and we are going to guarantee a minimum price so that no one has a loss in your crop”, he said, also citing the work of the National Supply Company (Conab) in maintaining the regulatory stock so that “there is no more shortage of food in this country and that the price does not increase exorbitantly”.

Another challenge, according to Lula, is to guarantee access to land for those who want to produce, as in the recognition of quilombos and in the survey of unproductive lands for agrarian reform.

Harvest Plan

During the ceremony, the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira, highlighted one of the pillars of this Crop Plan, which is the protection of the environment. “We want to take advantage of this cycle, this window that has opened for agroecology, for the production of healthy foods, but also for regenerative, restorative agriculture that recovers water sources, riparian forests, that can recover Environmental Protection Areas”, he said.

“We are going to carry out a large program of productive forests and agroforestry in the Amazon region and reforestation in our country. That is why the new Pronaf Custeio range has been created for socio-biodiversity, organic and agro-ecological production”, he explained.

According to Teixeira, another challenge is the production of healthier food for Brazilians, given the loss of area in the production of items such as rice, beans, vegetables and fruits, and the change in family habits.

“The loss of income, unemployment and the pandemic helped to change the eating habits of the Brazilian people in a negative way, those foods that are traditionally on the Brazilian table are no longer consumed and have been replaced by ultra-processed ones. So, we have increased diseases due to poor diet in society”, said the minister.

Agribusiness

Complementing the values ​​for the rural sector, yesterday (27), Lula announced the Crop Plan 2023/2024 for agribusiness, with R$ 364.22 billion for financing agriculture and business livestock in the country.

Productive sector

The president of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag), Aristides Veras dos Santos, stated that the plan presented “will still not be ideal”, but believes that “it was the best possible for the moment we are living”. He also demanded easier access to resources from financial institutions.

“We believe that we are going to rebuild little by little, step by step, in whatever difficulties there are in relations with the banks, we are building it day by day with the government, with the ministries so that we have access. It is not enough to have the resources, you have to have access and facilities”, he stressed. “I hope that we can have more resources every day for the countryside to produce food and have a fair price for us and a fair price for the consumer too”, he added.

The general coordinator of the National Confederation of Workers in Family Farming in Brazil (Contraf), Maria Josana de Lima Oliveira, highlighted that the sector has the capacity to produce more and healthier food. “Producing healthy food is taking care of mother earth, it’s our life’s work, we know how to do that”, she said.

“Supporting family farming as a strategy is an important measure to ensure dignity and productive inclusion, overcoming food insecurity in rural populations, allowing urban populations to also have access to food in greater quantity, quality and at a fair price”, he highlighted.

interest rates

Among the announced measures is the reduction of the interest rate, from 5% a year to 4% a year, for those who produce food, such as rice, beans, cassava, tomatoes, milk, eggs, among others. The government’s objective is to contribute to the country’s food security by stimulating the production of essential food for Brazilian families.

-> Food qualifying for the benefit of an interest rate of 4% per annum:

rice	bean	cowpea bean	cassava	wheat	peanut
garlic	tomato	onion	yam	face	sweet potato
English potato	pineapple	banana	açaí	cultivated	cultivated cacao
orange	tangerine	olericolas	medicinal herbs	aromatic	condiments

– Livestock funding for beekeeping, dairy cattle, laying poultry, aquaculture and fishing, sheep and goat farming and ecologically sustainable extractive exploration.

The rates of the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program, Proagro Mais, will drop 50% for food production. Family farmers who opt for the sustainable production of healthy food, with a focus on organic products, socio-biodiversity, bioeconomy or agroecology, will also have greater incentives, with interest of only 3% per year on funding and 4% per year on investment.

-> Foods subject to the interest rate of 3% per year – organic, socio-biodiversity and agroecology:

Blackberry	andiroba	araticum	arrack	extractive açaí
babassu	they are flat	bacuri	new	cream potato
extractive rubber	buriti	extractive cocoa	cagaita	cashew
cambuci	Brazil nut	Brazil nuts	copaiba	cupuaçu
mate herb	guabiroba	jaborandi	jabuticaba	guava
jatobá	genipap	juçara	licuri	macaúba
mangaba	murici	murumuru	ora-for-nobis	click
pequi	piaçava	pinion	management arapaima
pitanga	peach palm	taioba	taperebá	tucumã
root	annatto	you	meliponiculture

– Agroecologically based production systems or in transition to agroecologically based systems

– Organic production systems

Another novelty is the changes in productive microcredit, aimed at low-income family farmers. The so-called Pronaf B will have the annual family income framework expanded from R$23,000 to R$40,000 and the credit limit from R$6,000 to R$10,000. The payment discount for the North and Northeast regions will jump from 25% to 40%.

Rural productive promotion, which is a non-reimbursable resource for farmers in poverty, will also be corrected and will go from R$ 2,400 to R$ 4,600 per family. This action is carried out by the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS).

Rural women also received a specific line in the Crop Plan for Family Agriculture. A new range will be created in the Pronaf Woman line, with a financing limit of up to R$ 25,000 per year and an interest rate of 4% per year, aimed at women farmers with annual income of up to R$ 100,000.

In addition, if the woman qualifies for Pronaf B, the financing limit doubles and reaches R$ 12,000, with a 25% to 40% discount for non-payment. Quilombolas and agrarian reform settlers will have an increase in the Fomento Mulher rebate (installation credit modality) from 80% to 90%.

The Safra Plan now includes traditional and indigenous peoples and communities as beneficiaries of Pronaf A, aimed at agrarian reform settlers.

Mechanization

Another novelty is the recomposition of the Mais Alimentos Program, with measures to stimulate the production and acquisition of specific agricultural machines and implements for family farming. The measure aims to improve the quality of life of family farmers, increase productivity in the field and boost national industry.

According to Minister Paulo Teixeira, mechanization in the sector is only 17%. “We have to increase mechanization in family farming to increase productivity, reduce the drudgery (exhausting activities) of work, attract youth to stay in the countryside,” he explained. For the minister, the challenge for the industry is to produce smaller machines, more accessible to family farmers.

“I mentioned the situation of women who raise shrimp in the Northeast, who often have to work in the water, without any protection. So, we need to have modern shrimp processing and cleaning equipment. How does the person who harvests açaí work in the North? She climbs a tree, harvests and comes down. We can develop small elevators that could lift the person and that could be steered”, she exemplified.

For the minister, the tripod for excellence in family farming is credit, machinery and technical assistance. According to Teixeira, the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA) is going to propose an agreement with the Ministries of Education and Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) for rural extension in partnership with universities and federal institutes.

Interest on the Pronaf line for agricultural machinery and implements was also reduced, from 6% per year to 5% per year. The program will be coordinated by the MDA in partnership with the MCTI and the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC).

access to land

At this Wednesday’s ceremony, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed decrees that resume land access policies. The measures aim to guarantee more credit for the installation of families, enabling the purchase of essential items, durable goods for domestic use or equipment, so that the settler can start or invest in production.

The readjustment will be of up to 220% in the values ​​of the types of credit for the installation of the National Agrarian Reform Program. The federal government will also invest in Fomento Jovem, a new modality aimed at rural youth, young people between 16 and 29 years old. The amount will be up to R$8,000 per family unit, with a two-year repayment period and an 80% rebate.

More resources and better financing conditions will also be allocated to those who produce food and to settlers who live in the semi-arid region, with a reduction in the interest rate from 5% per year to 4% per year and an increase in the financing limit of R$ 24 thousand to R$ 30 thousand. In addition, quilombola peoples will also be included as beneficiaries of credit and installation of agrarian reform.

An exclusive access lane will be created for youth in the National Land Credit Program (PNCF), providing access to land for young people who want to live in the countryside. The financing ceiling will be R$ 184,380.77, with a payment period of 25 years and a grace period of 36 months.