Brasília – The 2011-2012 Agriculture and Livestock Plan, which should be launched officially tomorrow (17th) by president Dilma Rousseff, in Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, make 107,2 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 67.4 billion) available to finance agricultural production. According to the minister of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi, the grain crop is expected to grow by more than 5%, from the current 161.5 million tonnes to 170 million.
“The government is offering better conditions for growers to be able to go on expanding agricultural production, always with a focus on sustainability. Along these lines, we will have more foods, more earnings for growers and environmental preservation,” said the minister. The Low Carbon Agriculture Program (ABC, in the Portuguese acronym launched last July and still little known among farmers, will encompass all of the activities that encourage food production coupled with environmental preservation, with 3.15 billion reals (US$ 1.98 million) in funds, annual interest rates of 5.5% and a 15 year term.
A new feature of the program is that for the first time ever, a special line of credit will be created for animal husbandry. Through it, producers will get up to 750,000 reals (US$ 472,000) in financing for purchasing breeder cattle and reproductive bovines and buffalos. For funding, cattle breeders will have their limits increased from 275,000 reals (US$ 173,000) to 650,000 reals (US$ 409 million).
The government has also established a program to expand sugarcane production, one of the actions to try and solve the issue of ethanol scarcity in some periods of the year, which drives up the cost of the fuel. The maximum funding will be 1 million reals (US$ 629,000), with a five-year term.
Funding operations for all agriculture- and livestock-related activities with differentiated credit limits have had their limits set at 650,000 reals (US$ 409,000) per grower. According to the Agricultural Policy secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, José Carlos Vaz, the intention is to grant equal treatment to growers of export commodities and those that supply the domestic market.
The funds available for funding and sales, at 80.2 billion reals (US$ 50.4 billion), represent 74.8% of the entire volume of financing made available for the crop. Out of those, 64.1 billion reals (US$ 40.3 billion) will have controlled interested rates of 6.75% a year. A total of 20.5 billion reals (US$ 12.8 billion) will be made available for investment, a 14% increase compared with the 18 billion reals (US$ 11.3 billion) allocated to the 2010-2011 crop. The National Program for Support to Medium-Sized Farmers (Pronamp) will have 8.3 billion reals (US$ 5.2 billion) in funds available, a 48.2% increase compared with the 5.65 billion reals (US$ 3.5 billion) made available in the previous cycle.
The ministry informed that in addition to the 5.2 billion reals (US$ 3.2 billion) provided for in the budget for aiding sales, which should be allocated to measures aiming to guarantee farmers’ earnings and the domestic supply, the new crop plan raises the minimum prices of milk (up to 8.5%), of cassava flour (11.2%), cassava root (up to 21%), cashew nut (12.5%), jute and malva (up to 47.5%) and castor seed (14.5%), as well as assai (20%), pequi (up to 10%) and wax powder (5%), which are socio-biodiversity products.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
