Brasília, January 9, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The government's 2003/2004 harvest plan foresees the application of R$ 32.5 billion in rural credit, 26% more than what was applied in the previous harvest season (2002/2003). The Bank of Brazil alone is expected to apply R$ 20 billion in the harvest, 33.3% more than the resources it applied in the 2002/2003 harvest. This information was provided, Thursday (8) by the Bank's vice-president of agrobusiness and government, Ricardo Conceição.

According to him, of the total the Bank will apply this year, R$ 3.3 billion will go to family farming and R$ 16.7 billion to other agricultural sectors. The Bank's resources for family farming grew 57.4% in this year's harvest. Conceição said that the soybean complex and livestock should be the locomotives of agricultural production this year. (DAS)