Brasília, June 28, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said today that farmers from all over the country can count on not only his support, but that of the entire federal government. "We believe that family farming, in addition to producing food, produces something more important: It produces citizenship, it produces dignity, and it produces respectability," he declared.
The President participated in the inauguration of the 2004/2005 Harvest Plan for Family Farming. R$ 7 billion in loans will be made available to small farmers. "This is our second Harvest Plan. We still have two more to go. I have no doubt that each year we shall be confirming everything that we have believed all along, that it is necessary to strengthen family farming and settlements definitively in this country," Lula said.
Lula recalled that, in the previous Administration, only 57% of the funds announced for family farming ended up in the hands of the workers. In the past crop year, according to Lula, this percentage was up to 85% of the resources that were made available. "We need to reach perfection, 100%, and, for this to occur, we have to get the private banks to make their contribution for us to reach the total, not just the R$ 7 billion, but perhaps even adding a little bit more. Money for family farming will not be lacking in this country," he guaranteed.
According to the President, the increase in the number of families benefitted could have been greater. He acknowledged that his government was unable to generate sufficient demand for credit offered to women and young people, as announced in the last Harvest Plan. For this year, Lula is betting on communication to show the wives and children of farmers that they also can have access to credit. "Our idea was that on a property containing 20 to 30 hectares, there could be 3 distinct projects and that people could take advantage of the multifunctionality of family farming in full strength," he explained.
The President also informed that he intends to improve the technical assistance provided to family farmers and residents of agrarian reform settlements. "Providing family farming access to technology is to enable it to attain a progessive standard equal to any other segment of agriculture in the country, and I would even say equal to any other sector of any other country in the world," he emphasized.
The results of the last harvest plan, his Administration's first, indicated, according to Lula, that funds were disbursed to all regions of the country. In the 2002/2003 crop year, there were 30 thousand contracts in the Center-West. This total rose to 58,240 contracts in the past harvest. In the Northeast, the number of contracts rose from 285 thousand to 563 thousand over the same period, and in the North the increase was from 35 thousand to 105 thousand.
The President pointed out that family farming generates 74% of the jobs in the countryside, accounts for 31% of rice production, 77% of bean production, 52% of dairy farming, and 60% of chicken and pig breeding. In addition, family farmers were responsible for a third of the 50 million tons of soybeans produced in the past crop year. "It is necessary for us to give this segment of society its due importance, which is frequently not recognized," he said.
Translator: David Silberstein
