Public policies for family farming
The public policy for family farming with the largest relevance began in 1995 with the creation of the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming (Pronaf, from the acronym in Portuguese). The program's goal has been to strengthen family farming through subsidized financing of agricultural and non-agricultural services. That program guarantees the diversification of agricultural activities in family properties, enables entrepreneurship through the processing and agroindustrialization of food that is produced by family farming, and meets market demands and requirements of adoption of conservation practices for an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable production.
Brazil’s 2020/2021 HarvestPlan (Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply, or Mapa, from Portuguese) will provide, through Pronaf, R$33 billion to finance smallholders, with interest of 2.75% and 4% a year, for costs and commercialization. The highlight of the year lies in financing to build or remodel the homes of farming families, with a line of credit of R$500 million, benefiting more than 8,000 families, including the possibility of access to credit. The novelty of this edition of the Harvest Plan is that descendants that are in their parents’ property will also be able to use the credit, which contributes to family succession in the field. The Harvest Plan reaffirms related policies: Rural Housing, Pronaf Bioeconomy, Brazilian Sociobiodiversity Bioeconomy Program, Pronaf More Food, Price Guarantee Program for Family Farming, Professional Agricultural Residency, Food Acquisition Program, and Land Credit.
Social and pension policies such as Special Beneficiary of Social Security and Rural Retirement (Funrural, from Portuguese) were adapted to pension reform norms. Other public policies that were maintained and are subject to budget constraints are the Emergency Financial Aid, the My House My Life Rural Program, quotas in Professional Schools (Federal Center for Technological Education, CEFET, from Portuguese) and Pronatec Field. The Secretariat of Family Agriculture and Cooperatives (SEAF/MAPA, from Portuguese) coordinates several public policies for family farming and access to those policies and programs is available on the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply.
It is important to point out that to have access to the public policies, the family farmer has to have an active Declaration of Aptitude to Pronaf - DAP having an active DAP (one that is valid and of the latest version) is not enough to grant access to Pronaf's lines of credit and to public policies for family farming, because each policy has its own specific criteria to be accessed.
In summary, some of the current main Public Policies that support family farming are:
1. National Policy for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Pnater) - t was established in 2010 by Law No. 12,188/2010. It is managed by the National Program for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Pronater), and establishes guidelines and goals for public TARE (Technical Assistance and Rural Extension) services in Brazil. It is coordinated by the Department of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Dater, from Portuguese), which annually devises technical assistance and rural extension actions for each Family Farming Harvest Plan, based on SAF's policies, in TARE State Programs that are based on the demands of family farming.
Created with the aim of serving only family farmers, the National TARE Policy(Pnater) was designed to work with an expanded vision of sustainable development; highlight new participatory methodological approaches, favoring knowledge exchange and building; use a technological paradigm based on principles of Agroecology; respect the different identities of family farmers, traditional peoples and communities; favor the endogenous potential of communities and territories; recover and interact with knowledge of family farmers and other peoples and traditional communities; include gender, generation, race and ethnicity approaches in project and program guidelines; and prioritize the groups that have historically been the most excluded from development processes; among others.
At the moment, PNATER is being reformulated in order to accommodate small and medium-scale farmers that do not fit into the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming (Pronaf) and it focuses on 3 axes of action: 1. Providing Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (TARE); 2. Training and Capacity Building of TARE Agents; and 3. Promoting the production of technologies and knowledge for family farming.
2. Family Farming Insurance (SEAF) - This is an exclusive action for family farmers who take out loans for agricultural costs from PRONAF. SEAF guarantees the loan’s full coverage, plus 65% of the expected net income of families that lose their crops due to weather phenomena covered by the Insurance.
The Harvest Guarantee Fund is a PRONAF action to assist family farmers in the semiarid region, in case of crop loss due to droughts. It was established by Law No. 10,420/2002 and altered by Law No. 10,700/2003, with the main goal of providing tranquility and security to agriculture in the Brazilian semiarid region.
3. Minimum Price Guarantee Policy (PGPM) - It is an important tool to reduce fluctuations in farmers' income and ensure a minimum remuneration, acting as a beacon of food supply, encouraging or discouraging production and guaranteeing the regularity of the national supply. The National Supply Company (CONAB) operates in PGPM in the Government's Agricultural Plan with market analysis, domestic and international supply and demand assessment, supply plans, and in the Minimum Price Proposal, a document taken as the technical basis for the discussion and definition of Minimum Prices between the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply (Mapa), the Ministry of Economy (ME) and the National Monetary Council (CMN).
This Policy also has a specific modality for extractive products, called the Minimum Price Guarantee Policy for Sociobiodiversity Products (PGPM-Bio). That modality aims to promote environmental protection, by contributing to reducing deforestation, as a way of minimizing climate change effects, while also guaranteeing income to the various extractive populations. These populations have their own forms of social organization, which occupy and use territories and natural resources as a condition for their cultural, social, religious, ancestral and economic reproduction, and use knowledge, innovations and practices that are generated and passed on by tradition.
4. Price Guarantee Program for Family Farming (PGPAF, from Portuguese) - It consists in supporting family farmers who have loans under Pronaf, ensuring their indexation at a guarantee price that is equal or close to production costs and never lower than the one established in the Minimum Price Guarantee Policy (PGPM).
5. Terra Brasil – National Land Credit Program (PNCF) - It provides conditions for farmers who do not have access to land or who have small farms to buy rural properties through financing. Moreover, the financed resources can be used to structure the property and the production project, to hire Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (TARE) and to do whatever else is necessary for the farmer to develop their activities in an autonomous and independent way.
6. National Family Farming Seal (SENAF) - It identifies the origin and describes the traits of family farming products, aiming to strengthen it in the eyes of consumers. The Seal is identified with a specific image, a QR code and a serial number. Each product has its own numbering with SENAF validity of two years, and it can be renewed. It is granted to agroindustries and cooperatives/associations bearing the Declaration of Aptitude to Pronaf (DAP). The management of family farming products and services that have the Seal is done on a web platform, the Family Farming Showcase, which is maintained by the Secretariat of Family Agriculture and Cooperatives. There are 7 types of the National Family Farming Seal, which are: Senaf, Senaf Woman, Senaf Youth, Senaf Quilombola, Senaf Indigenous People, Senaf Sociobiodiversity and Senaf Businesses.
7. National Program of Biodiesel Production and Use (PNPB) - It is a Federal Government’s interministerial program that aims at the sustainable implementation of the production and use of biodiesel, focusing on productive inclusion, and employment and income generation. The Social Fuel Seal is an identification component created through Decree No. 5,297, of December 6th, 2004, granted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply to biodiesel producers who meet the criteria described in Ordinance no. 144, of July 22nd, 2019. The Seal makes its bearer a promoter of productive inclusion of family farmers who adhere to Pronaf.
8. More Cooperative Brazil Program - Ordinance No. 129, of July 4th, 2019, instituted the More Cooperative Brazil government program, to support Brazilian rural cooperativism and associativism by offering specialized assistance, promoting intercooperation, providing technical training and qualifying management, production and commercialization processes in institutional and private markets.
9. National School Feeding Program (PNAE) - It is one of the Federal Government's oldest social programs and one of the largest feeding programs in the world. It was established by Resolution No. 26/2013 and complemented by Resolutions No. 04/2015 and No. 01/2017. The program transfers to state and city education secretariats, as well as to federal schools, around R$4.3 billion annually for the purchase of healthy food that respect local agricultural vocation, eating habits, and local traditions. Therefore, from the total that is passed on by the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE), National Fund for Ediucational Development- FNDE, regarding PNAE, at least 30% (thirty per cent) must be used exclusively to purchase food products from family farms, through public call notices
10. Food Acquisition Program (PAA) - It was established by article 19 of Law no. 10,696 of July 2nd, 2003. It aims at the acquisition of food directly from family farming, aiming to strengthen the commercialization processes of its products through to major axes, namely: i) the direct purchase for simultaneous donation to entities of the social assistance network, such as: schools, day care centers and nursing homes, intending to ensure this community's food security and food safety; and ii) support the creation of stockpiles and their subsequent commercialization in the market. The PAA is geared towards families included in the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming (PRONAF).
11. Brazilian Sociobiodiversity Bioeconomy Program - This program, created by Ordinance No. 121, of June 18th, 2019, is executed through public calls. It is structured into five thematic axes: I — Productive Structuring of Extractivism Chains (Pro-Extractivism); II – Medicinal, Aromatic and Condiment Herbs, Oils and Special Teas of Brazil; III – Sociobiodiversity Roadmap; IV – Brazilian Agrobiodiversity Potential and V – Renewable Energy for Family Farming.
12. Professional Agricultural Residency Program - This program aims to promote the qualification of young students and recent graduates in agricultural sciences and related courses, through internship or residency. It will promote the development of knowledge and skills, through intensive professional training in one or more areas of knowledge, in order to specialize future professionals to practice the profession and offer consultancy in the areas of agricultural and related sciences. It is geared towards young people between the ages of 15 and 29 that are either high school and college students or graduates, as long as the course has been concluded within the last 12 months. Resident students will do practical activities within the functions related to their vocational training, under the supervision and monitoring of a qualified technical professional trained in that area of expertise.
13. Digital TARE Program - This Project's goal is to strengthen the Brazilian System of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Sibrater, from Portuguese), in order to expand the reach of extension workers in all regions of Brazil, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), increasing farmers' access to modern, agile and efficient services, boosting their competitiveness.
This program is based on 5 action axes: 1. Organization and sharing of information/knowledge; 2. Modernization of the Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure of TARE institutions; 3. Sharing and/or development of systems/apps; 4. Training of Public TARE Entity extension workers on how to use IT mobile resources; and 5. Creation of the Information and Technological Management Pilot Hub for Family Farming.
14. National Integration Routes Program - The National Integration Routes is a regional development and productive inclusion strategy centered on local productive arrangement networks that aims to promote innovation, differentiation, competitiveness and sustainability of enterprises associated with production chains. The production chains that currently make up the route are: açaí, fruit farming, fish, honey, cocoa, lamb, biodiversity, circular economy, information technology and communication.
15. Family Agroindustry - It has faced challenges regarding legality to be able to access markets. However, the Federal Government supports the implementation of actions to train family farmers, insert them and maintain them competitively in the market. The Unified System for Attention to Agricultural and Livestock Health – SUASA is responsible for organizing animal and plant health surveillance and defense actions, under government coordination in the various federal courts and within the scope of its jurisdiction. Tax, fiscal, environmental and sanitary legislations to proceed regularization are quite extensive and complex.