São Paulo - The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva remains committed to its land reform target of settling 400,000 families during its first term of office, says the president of the Land Reform Institute (Incra), Rolf Hackbart. According to Hackbart, so far 115,000 families have gotten land and another 44,000 families are scheduled to be settled at the beginning of next year.

As for funding, Hackbart says that so far US$219 million (R$600 million) has been spent on land reform and that an additional, suplementary, budget of US$73 million (R$200 million) is scheduled to be released before the end of the year.

Speaking to newly-elected mayors from the state of São Paulo, Hackbart declared that the government is committed to quality settlements. He pointed out that out of a total of 5,000 Incra land reform settlements, 83 are in terrible shape with regard to infrastructure.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Elisângela Cordeiro
Translator: Allen Bennett
11/29/2004