FPA negotiates with the rapporteur for the ministerial restructuring, the return of CONAB and CAR to the Ministry of Agriculture

The criticisms are concentrated, especially, in relation to the change of Conab (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento), which left the portfolio of Agriculture and is under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), commanded by Minister Paulo Teixeira. In addition to the Forest Service, which migrated to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, led by Minister Marina Silva.

The president of the FPA, deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), cites as essential the returns from Conab and the Forest Service for strengthening the MAPA.

“First of all, it is not a matter of recovering, it is a matter of strengthening the Ministry of Agriculture again. The ministry was very weakened and very disjointed with the actions that took place to restructure the Esplanada and this means that we need to recover some points ”, he highlights.

Conab is primarily responsible for promoting food and nutritional security for the population. In addition, the state-owned company plays a fundamental role in coordinating the Safra Plan, which allocates resources to finance agricultural activity. In the case of the Forestry Service, one of the main concerns of the agribusiness group is the CAR, Rural Environmental Registry. In Brazil, registration in the system is mandatory for all rural properties in the country and serves for the owner to obtain the environmental compliance of the property. However, Lupion observes that the move to the Ministry of the Environment does not benefit the sector.

“The CAR, which is our registration that we are obliged to do and today, unfortunately it is only serving for ideological political patrol within the Ministry of the Environment and so on. These are themes that are dear to Brazilian agriculture and livestock, which we are very concerned about and which we need the ministry to be relevant once again in this plenary session”, he considers.

For the parliamentarian, with the current formatting of the MAPA, the thinking and planning capacity of Brazilian agriculture was compromised by the changes. Now, the FPA seeks to revert the changes. For this, its members have already made suggestions to the rapporteur of the Provisional Measure of ministerial restructuring, deputy Isnaldo Bulhões (MDB-AL).

“There is an expectation of the negotiations we are doing with the rapporteur, Deputy Isnaldo Bulhões. We have presented these points to him. We have been talking to him, hoping he will comply with some of the amendments”, he points out.

Emptying of agribusiness

According to political scientist Antônio Flávio Testa, the demands presented so far by the FPA are fair.

“This change that the current government made was simply to divide this portfolio, emptying it and making the Ministry of Agriculture a portfolio without any power. I think this was very bad and simply shows the ideological side of the current government in relation to agricultural power, the power of Brazilian agribusiness”, he highlights.

Deputy Bulhões’s report should be presented and voted on next Tuesday (25). The Provisional Measure for restructuring the Esplanada sets the number of ministries at 31, in addition to six other bodies gaining status of ministries that advise the Presidency of the Republic.