Brazil Will Help Farming Families Again

The Brazilian government is going to restart technical assistance and rural extension programs for family farming. For the last 14 years such services were not available following the extinction of the Embrater agency.

Embrater, the Empresa Brasileira de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural ( Brazilian Agency for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension) was closed during the Collor administration in 1990.


Since last year the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration’s Ministry of Agrarian Development has been gearing up for the restart.


One of the reasons for the new startup is that there are now 4.1 million family farms in Brazil and they own 80% of all farming properties in the country.


To commemorate the new beginning of the program a national conference (Conferência Nacional de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural) is taking place in Brasí­lia, Brazil’s capital, this week.


Hur Ben Corrêa da Silva, an agriculture technician at the ministry who is participating in the conference, says that at the moment only 1.6 million family farms have access to technical assistance and rural extension.


“We are restoring the service in such a way that all 4.1 million family farms will have access to it at an affordable price. This type of service is as important in rural areas as education and healthcare is to the general population,” explained Corrêa da Silva.


“Technical assistance and rural extension goes far beyond just producing more and selling better. It is a process of building up rural infrastructure with a resultant improvement in income and quality of life,” declared Corrêa da Silva.


It means training people and providing more funding, as well as obtaining market access and improving organization.


It also means planting and processing crops and information in a more efficient manner, he said, so that at the end of the day you have a significant, positive impact on family farming in Brazil.


Agência Brasil
Translator: Allen Bennett

Tags:

You May Also Like

FTAA Disappeared from Brazilian Radar

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva insisted on the need to consolidate the ...

Will Junior (picture) kiss Zeca? Everybody Brazilian wants to know.

Brazil Stops Tonight to Wait for a Gay Kiss

Brazilian soap operas are no strangers to scandal, but talk of a kiss between ...

Brazil’s Lula Silences Aides Pushing for Punishment of Dictatorship Torturers

Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, says Brazilians should enshrine the "heroes" who ...

US Cargill Invests US$ 69 Million in Brazilian Corn Processing Plant

Cargill, a United States-based agribusiness company, which owns operations in Brazil, is going to ...

The author's boat, the Roamdeep

Brazil Won’t Let My Boat Out, the US Won’t Let My Brazilian Wife In

I received my visa (#A 1416275) to Brazil in Trinidad on October 6, 2002. ...

Brazil Is the World’s Top Provider of Public Transplant. Still There Are 63,000 in Line.

Brazilian Health Minister, launched Brazil’s National Organ and Tissue Donation Campaign, Friday, September 23, ...

Bank of Brazil Posts Record Profits of Over US$ 2 Billion

State-owned Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil) posted a net profit of 1.4 billion ...

Brazil Offers Hand to Colombia, Venezuela and Guinea-Bissau

Brazilian presidential spokesman, André Singer, said, yesterday, January 17, that the Brazilian government is ...

Brazilian Faucet Maker Wants to Expand Its Overseas Reach

Company Docol, from the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, one of the main ...

Brazil’s Friboi Acquires Argentina’s Swift Armour

Friboi, a leading Brazilian meatpacker, has acquired a majority participation in Swift Armour the ...