The Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), with the support of the Brazilian Network of the UN Global Compact, launched today the publication “Financing for Small and Medium Rural Producers”, during the Principles into Practice Workshop – Business Principles for Food and Agriculture (PEAA), at the Eco Space Foundation – SP.
It is known that the participation of small and medium-sized producers is essential to ensure the future of the country's food supply, and even that of the world. Today, 70% of the food on Brazilians' tables is produced by these producers, who also hold 77% of the rural workforce and own the largest number of rural properties (90% of the country's rural properties are less than 100 ha).
In this category – small and medium-sized rural producers – more than 4 million establishments were identified, representing 84.4% of the more than 5.2 million rural establishments in the country. These producers are generally rural workers who produce various crops with little technology and predominantly family labor and who, although they correspond to 84.4% of rural establishments in Brazil, occupy only 24.3% of the rural area, and account for 40% of the Gross Production Value (GVP).
Thus, the future challenges for small and medium-sized farmers do not stop at the issue of increasing production. Several challenges and difficulties are imposed by changes in the world due to the increased pressure on nature: increased droughts and/or floods; global warming; loss of natural pollinators; erosion and loss of soil fertility; and labor evasion from the fields.
“Based on this threatening scenario, the Primer aims to show options for financing lines and technical support to producers who normally suffer from a lack of resources, while at the same time helping to disseminate programs focused on sustainable and low-carbon agriculture”, stated André Ramalho, coordinator of the Thematic Chamber of Biodiversity and Biotechnology (CTBio) of CEBDS, who presented the project during the event.
The publication highlights that among the opportunities that can lead to a leap in quality – and entry into market niches – are the implementation of technologies aimed at organic agriculture and livestock farming, planting of commercial forests, integrated Crop-Livestock-Forestry (iLPF), direct planting systems, treatment and use of animal waste. These are all modalities of what has been called Low Carbon Agriculture, or ABC.
Agricultural technologies aimed at ABC are encouraged, mainly because Brazil assumed, at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP-15) of the Climate Convention, in 2009, the commitment to reduce between 36.1% and 38.9% its projected emissions by 2020. The main measures to fulfill this commitment focus on agriculture and livestock, with reduction of deforestation, recovery of degraded pastures, crop-livestock integration, biological nitrogen fixation and direct planting.
The financing of the actions of the ABC Plan – whose goals include recovering 15 million hectares of degraded pasture areas and increasing the area of commercial forests from six to nine million hectares by 2020 – relies on credit lines with interest subsidized by the government such as: Pronaf Eco, Floresta e Agroecologia; PAA; PNAE; and the ABC Program, directly linked to the Plan, aimed mainly at medium-sized rural producers.
The booklet provides details of the financing and incentive programs available in Brazil. To download, click here.
See below the article published in Jornal Brasil Econômico (March 6) about the booklet:
