Minister announces that new Crop Plan will have five components

Teixeira participated in an event commemorating the 54th anniversary of the Companhia de Entrepostos e Armazéns Gerais de São Paulo (Ceagesp), in the city of São Paulo. Ceagesp, as well as Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) and Conab (National Supply Company), are linked to the MDA.

According to the minister, the first objective is to give more stimulus to food production. Teixeira said that Brazil has reduced the area planted with beans, rice and vegetables and that it is necessary to increase planting as people gain purchasing power so that everyone has food in large quantities on the table.

“The second component is low-carbon, sustainable, regenerative agriculture. This is a commitment we have assumed together with the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture, Environment and Agrarian Development and family farmers. The third is the encouragement of agriculture practiced by women and by young people,” he said.

According to Teixeira, the fourth component is the promotion of agroindustry and the fifth is the production of machines. “It is also in the scenario to resume the (program) Mais Alimentos, which is for the production of machines.”

The minister said that he would advance the estimates for the Safra Plan because these numbers, both for business farming and for family farming, have not yet been finalized within the government.

Teixeira said the numbers should be announced within the next three weeks, as the plan has to be released in June. “The announcement will be made by President Lula, who has the greatest appreciation for the Crop Plan, the Crop Plan for Family Agriculture and the More Food Plan”, informed the minister.

He added that there is still no estimate of how much investment in machinery for the agriculture sector will be. “Abimaq (Brazilian Machinery and Equipment Industry Association) says that the biggest investment in capital goods in Brazil took place between 2010 and 2014. agricultural machinery”.

According to the minister, the government’s objective is for the program to have a production arm of smaller machines, more adapted for family farming, since the machines in Brazil are currently aimed at large business agriculture and little for family farming. “We want to reduce the ‘difficulty’ of this farmer, increase his productivity and encourage technology to keep youth in the field”, he said.

Marco temporal

When commenting on the government’s guidance to allies in the Chamber of Deputies to vote on the bill (PL) for the timeframe, the minister said he understands that it is necessary to have “government” positions, and not one’s own. In his evaluation, after the government has oriented to vote against the PL and the opposite has occurred, there may be tension with the indigenous communities, which are ancestral in the country.

“We arrived after them. My opinion is that Brazil already has almost the same plantation area as degraded pastures. So, by recovering these pastures, we could have two more plantation areas than we have today. The indigenous areas serve to preserve traditional peoples, traditional cultures and the environment. For that reason, I don’t see why to approve this timeframe, and I hope that the Senate can give another treatment”, he affirmed.

Policies against hunger

Regarding food insecurity and hunger, Teixeira stated that it is necessary, first of all, to improve the population’s income. According to the minister, the current government has recovered the policy of valuing the minimum wage and has corrected the Income Tax table. He also recalled that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva increased the National School Feeding Program by R$ 1.5 billion.

“Therefore, there will be money left in the worker’s pocket, and the initial consumption is food. This will stimulate production. At the same time, he (Lula) corrected the Bolsa Família, with each child up to the age of 6 receiving R$ 150 , each child up to 18 years of age, plus R$ 50. So this is also money in the pockets of the poorest families to feed themselves”, he emphasized.

The minister also mentioned the Food Acquisition Program, which received over R$ 500 million to purchase food from the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture (Pronaf), which will be strengthened and will automatically be able to produce more, guaranteeing supply and encouraging purchases by public agencies.

“We are rescuing policies that Brazil needs, for example, in the area of ​​buying food for stocks. We will have to think about which foods cannot be missing from the Brazilian table, or which affect inflation and have a special look at them This is something that will be resumed. Conab (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento) has returned and is already starting to discuss the topic of public purchases, but it is a decision that we must take soon”.

ceagesp

Regarding the change of the warehouse to another area, far from the urban center, as São Paulo governors have been defending over several terms, Teixeira stated that Ceagesp should remain public and be withdrawn from the National Privatization Plan (PND). “The debate is ongoing, and I cannot say whether it (Ceagesp) remains here, but any plan must have studies and decisions, which do not yet exist.”