Brasília - The Incentive Program for Cooperativism in Family Farming and Solidary Economy (Coopersol) was launched today by the Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rossetto. The object is to ensure that at least 20% of the US$ 2.43 billion (R$ 7 billion) earmarked for Family Farming in the current Harvest Plan is channeled through credit cooperatives.
According to the Central Bank (BC), 1,665 municipalities (29% of the 5,658 that exist in Brazil) don't have bank branches, but many of them have cooperatives. The President of the BC, Henrique Meirelles, attended the ceremony at which the Coopersol was announced.
The Coopersol is part of the federal government's Brazil Cooperative Plan, which gives each Ministry autonomy to implant programs that stimulate the growth of this sector. According to Rossetto, the government is making big strides in the allotment of credit to family farming and agrarian reform settlers.
"A year and a half ago we had US$ 766 million (R$ 2.2 billion), and now, during the present farm year, we are operating with US$ 2.43 billion (R$ 7 billion)," he pointed out. In the Minister's view, cooperation and association are essential to organization and strategic production in the government's development model.
For Rossetto, the inauguration of the Coopersol launches and structures the program to support cooperativism and represents a milestone in the implementation of the government's rural development strategy. "Support for family agriculture and the agrarian reform program constitute strategic lines of attack for the model of economic development with social inclusion that we are erecting in the country," he remarked.
The Minister said that few countries have Brazil's opportunities to provide work, productive activity, and increased food production with quality. "That is the reason that, parallel to a landholding strategy, a land access program, an agrarian reform program, we are putting together a set of public policies to sustain effectively this democratic agrarian model of access to land."
At the ceremony to inaugurate the Coopersol, the Minister signed agreements worth US$ 661 million (R$ 1.9 million) with nine credit cooperatives. The agreements, which involve training programs and expansion, should benefit 139.3 thousand families.
The partners of the Coopersol include the Association of Family and Solidary Credit Cooperativism (Ancosol), which is national in scope, and eight other credit cooperatives, which are active in 15 states. Rossetto also signed a term of technical cooperation with the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) for specialized training in credit cooperatives. The goal is to prepare 240 professionals in this area in the next two years.
Agência Brasil
Reporter: Benedito Mendonça
Translator: David Silberstein
09/22/2004
