Land concentration in the hands of a few property owners produces not only social inequalities but economic losses as well, affirms the Italian economist, Paulo Croppo, an advisor in the Rural Development division of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Fund.
Croppo participated, Saturday, March 4, in the inaugural plenary session of the National Sustainable Rural Development Council (CONDRAF), in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.
The CONDRAF event is being held parallel to the 2nd International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.
Among what he considers to be Brazilian innovations, Croppo highlighted participatory mechanisms in the formulation of government policies, such as the CONDRAF itself, which, according to the economist, has only one counterpart in the world, in Peru.
"When the subject is family farming, there are concrete policies here, in the countryside, not just a term in a document prepared by an international agency. For a long time the theme of family farming was not considered relevant to agrarian development."
The 2nd International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, which is sponsored by the United Nations in partnership with the Brazilian government, began Monday, March 6, and will run through Friday, March 10, also in Porto Alegre.
ABr