Conab will play key role in purchase of food and formation of regulatory stocks, says Minister Paulo Teixeira

01/04/2023

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Paulo Teixeira — Foto: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

The Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira, reinforced on Tuesday, during his inauguration ceremony, that he is facing the challenge of eradicating hunger in Brazil and providing more dignified living conditions for the people who live in rural areas.

The ceremony was attended by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and several other high-ranking officials, in a clear sign of the importance that the ministry will have in the new administration.

“No country can consider itself civilized with such a substantial portion of its population threatened by hunger. Without food, there is no democracy,” said Mr. Teixeira in his speech.

The minister said that the National Supply Company (Conab) will remain within the ministry’s structure, despite the suggestion of Agriculture Minister Carlos Fávaro to implement shared management in the state-owned company.

“Conab will play an important role in the purchase of food and the formation of regulatory stocks,” he said, adding that “all the Conab programs aimed at corporate agriculture will be maintained, but the company must remain in this ministry.”

About the stocks, however, Mr. Teixeira acknowledged that it will be necessary to seek funds in the budget to finance the storage. “We will talk to Finance and Agriculture [ministries] about the formation of regulatory stocks, so there will be no increase in the price of food or lack of food in the off-season,” he said.

With the high prices of meat in the last few years — and after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign promise that people will eat picanha, a cut barely similar to sirloin cap, again — Mr. Teixeira does not know if he will be able to create stocks of these products. “We will see the economic conditions for this. But there will certainly be grain stocks,” he said.

The ceremony also attracted rural social movements, which delivered food baskets from agrarian reform producers to the new minister and performed music and poetry.

The Conab auditorium, in Brasília, was packed with deputies, senators, and former ministers. The president of the Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, and the justice of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), Benedito Gonçalves, also attended.

Mr. Teixeira believes that there has been a setback in policies aimed at family farming and rural, water, and forest peoples since 2016, after the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff.

“The reversal process started in 2016 led to Brazil’s return to the hunger map. We have a huge territory that has not been used rationally in recent years due to the lack of public policies,” said the minister.

Even without a direct connection to agriculture, the new minister cited historical agendas of family farming social movements — such as agrarian reform, which had new settlement processes paralyzed during the Bolsonaro administration.

“Today, we restart this challenge to eradicate hunger and give more dignified living conditions to Brazilians who live in rural areas. We want to rescue the role of the Brazilian State, which through this and other ministries must promote access to land,” he said.

“We have thousands of families living in camps, on the sides of roads, in very poor conditions, in a country fully capable of offering land and housing to their sons and daughters,” he added.

According to the minister, access to land is the initial step to other rights, such as mobility, electricity, internet, and quality water. He also deems it necessary to show the impact of family agriculture on the preservation of the environment.

In this sense, Mr. Teixeira said he intends to implement an agrarian reform program with the resumption of expropriations and land distribution in Brazil. He also said that he will maintain the process of giving official deeds for existing settlements.

The minister guaranteed that, in this process, there will be legal security and that the property right will be respected. The minister criticized the interruption of land distribution actions in the last administration and wants to resume expropriations that have already been judged in court. Mr. Teixeira still does not have a survey of the size of the area suitable for expropriation.

The minister also said he intends to expand technical assistance and rural extension actions in agrarian reform settlements and for family producers.

*By Rafael Walendorff — Brasília

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/