Agricultors make progress in search of solution for debt

Published on Friday, 01/07/2011 – 11:55

Through unified mobilization, rural movements got to be attended by the federal government

After two years of negotiation the federal government received representatives of the rural social movements, in Brasília, to find a solution for the debt problem of the small farmers. On Wednesday, June 29, the federal government assumed the debt problem and commits itself to solve it. The proposal is that a Work Group with representatives of the federal government and social movements discuss ways for the agricultors to keep having access to credit.

One of the main concerns of the movements is that a great deal of the small farmers would be unqualified for the next Plano Safra because of expired debts. There was also the announcement of parcels of emergency credit, of R$2.000 which was issued to the agricultors because of the draught. Its payment will be parceled in four years, with the first part to be charged in November this year.

Besides, the agricultors will have a “waiting period” of up to 60 days to pay the credits of Pronaf Investments, including those expired and expiring. The objective is that in this time there will already be a solution for these debts too.

The Work Group composed of by two members of each representative organization of family agriculture (Via Campesina, Fetraf and Fetag), and federal government’s representatives. The first meeting is scheduled for July 20, when the government should present a survey about the debts, with data on how many agricultors are in debt and what the financial value is of the debts, and also other information.

Mobilizations

On Wednesday, 29 June, about 20 thousand agricultors of Via Campesina, Fetraf and Fetag were in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In Santa Catarina there were about 15 thousand agricultors mobilized. Even under rain the agricultors left their properties to demand of the governments renegotiations of the debts of the peasant agriculture.

Due to the measures taken by the federal government, the mobilizations have been temporarily lifted. But according to the agricultors these measures are not enough and that if the negotiations don’t progress even more, they will mobilize themselves again. In Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the peasants occupied the Ministry for Agrarian Development and the Ministry of Finance.

In a combined evaluation, the rural movements consider this an important step in the struggle against debt, recognizing the importance of the various mobilizations held by the agricultors in the streets, the union of almost all rural organizations and the sensibility of the federal government but, above all, the fairness of the struggle of the agricultors who want conditions to keep providing food, income and work for the Brazilian people.