Porto Alegre, 1/23/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rosseto, speaking yesterday at the World Social Forum, said it is important to understand the problem of farming families who own property but are unable to work it because of a lack of public policies. "We face an enormous challenge: most of the country's land reform settlements do not have basic infrastructure. No electricity, housing, sanitation, schools, healthcare centers, not to mention environmental protection," said the minister.

Rosseto says the way out of the problem is through credit, technical assistance, cooperativism, market access and training. He concluded by pointing out that fully 40% of Brazilian farm produce comes from family farming. (AB)