662
M. Dantas
family farming, after the announcement of the 2018 national budget. Below is a
translation of a portion of the letter highlighting cuts made by the administration,
published in September 2017.
…The Food Acquisition Program (PAA) of the Ministry of Social and Agrarian Development (MDSA) will be virtually extinct. In 2017 it had a budget of R$318 million, and for
2018 R$750 thousand, that is, a cut of 99.8%. The PAA at Sead will suffer a reduction of
approximately 70% compared to 2017. …For the Food and Nutrition Security policy, whose
main suppliers are family farmers, the cut reaches 84.42%. The Special Secretariat for Family Agriculture and Agrarian Development (Sead) will have its overall budget reduced from
R$1.03 billion this year to R$790 million in 2018. …The agrarian policy will be abandoned.
The resources for obtaining land for agrarian reform will be reduced dramatically from
R$257 million to R$34.2 million. The organization of the land structure from R$108 million
in 2017 to R$8.1 million in 2018. …In this sense, the Expanded Deliberative Council of
CONTAG reinforced the need to carry out an agenda of struggles and decided to hold the
NATIONAL MOBILIZATION WEEK from October 16 to 20, 2017, with the UNIFIED
DAY OF FIGHT being held on October 18, 2017, all over the country. (CONTAG, 2017)
When asked about the recent change in governments, the participants interviewed
had distinct narratives. Referring to the extinction of the MDA and the changes to
the Solidarity Economy Secretariat, one of the funding agents stated that:
…the question of extinction of acronyms does not always determine the extinction of functions. In fact, that was not it. What happened was just a cleaning of the public machine that
had been swollen, …but the functions and assignments, they remained. …They continue
with INCRA, CONAB and PAA. Only instead of running in three buildings, it’s running on
one, but public policies continue even with a unified budget. At least this is my perception
[my translation] (Anonymous. 2017. Interview by author).
When reminded that the programs mentioned had suffered severe cutbacks, the
funding agent stated that even with the federal cutbacks there was still funding
available for the family farmers, due to agreements between the local government and
the World Bank and other funding institutions. He cited that the RN state Government
has recently made an accord with the World Bank, and is heavily investing in family
agriculture, He stated there is a pilot project of approximately R$3 million for the
recovery or fruit pulp and cashew processing, and another R$12 million for the
development of dairy micro-industries, with a focus on the purchase of equipment,
infrastructure, and infrastructure assembly.
All the projects I have been following in the last ten years, gender diversity is required. There
are projects aimed at young audiences. Others make demands on a percentage of women.
…As for the question of need and size, also, all investment is only completed after diagnosis
in the community itself. There will be a team of technicians, agronomists, economists to
talk to them to identify the area of need, how much of production is in the community to
determine the size and type of the industry [my translation] (Anonymous. 2017. Interview
by author).
From farmers and community developers, the primary reaction to the change of
government direction was fear and uncertainty. They stated the cutbacks have already
affected them, however with the lack of communication with the government, they
are not sure how severe the situation will be in the future, provoking even more
M. Dantas
family farming, after the announcement of the 2018 national budget. Below is a
translation of a portion of the letter highlighting cuts made by the administration,
published in September 2017.
…The Food Acquisition Program (PAA) of the Ministry of Social and Agrarian Development (MDSA) will be virtually extinct. In 2017 it had a budget of R$318 million, and for
2018 R$750 thousand, that is, a cut of 99.8%. The PAA at Sead will suffer a reduction of
approximately 70% compared to 2017. …For the Food and Nutrition Security policy, whose
main suppliers are family farmers, the cut reaches 84.42%. The Special Secretariat for Family Agriculture and Agrarian Development (Sead) will have its overall budget reduced from
R$1.03 billion this year to R$790 million in 2018. …The agrarian policy will be abandoned.
The resources for obtaining land for agrarian reform will be reduced dramatically from
R$257 million to R$34.2 million. The organization of the land structure from R$108 million
in 2017 to R$8.1 million in 2018. …In this sense, the Expanded Deliberative Council of
CONTAG reinforced the need to carry out an agenda of struggles and decided to hold the
NATIONAL MOBILIZATION WEEK from October 16 to 20, 2017, with the UNIFIED
DAY OF FIGHT being held on October 18, 2017, all over the country. (CONTAG, 2017)
When asked about the recent change in governments, the participants interviewed
had distinct narratives. Referring to the extinction of the MDA and the changes to
the Solidarity Economy Secretariat, one of the funding agents stated that:
…the question of extinction of acronyms does not always determine the extinction of functions. In fact, that was not it. What happened was just a cleaning of the public machine that
had been swollen, …but the functions and assignments, they remained. …They continue
with INCRA, CONAB and PAA. Only instead of running in three buildings, it’s running on
one, but public policies continue even with a unified budget. At least this is my perception
[my translation] (Anonymous. 2017. Interview by author).
When reminded that the programs mentioned had suffered severe cutbacks, the
funding agent stated that even with the federal cutbacks there was still funding
available for the family farmers, due to agreements between the local government and
the World Bank and other funding institutions. He cited that the RN state Government
has recently made an accord with the World Bank, and is heavily investing in family
agriculture, He stated there is a pilot project of approximately R$3 million for the
recovery or fruit pulp and cashew processing, and another R$12 million for the
development of dairy micro-industries, with a focus on the purchase of equipment,
infrastructure, and infrastructure assembly.
All the projects I have been following in the last ten years, gender diversity is required. There
are projects aimed at young audiences. Others make demands on a percentage of women.
…As for the question of need and size, also, all investment is only completed after diagnosis
in the community itself. There will be a team of technicians, agronomists, economists to
talk to them to identify the area of need, how much of production is in the community to
determine the size and type of the industry [my translation] (Anonymous. 2017. Interview
by author).
From farmers and community developers, the primary reaction to the change of
government direction was fear and uncertainty. They stated the cutbacks have already
affected them, however with the lack of communication with the government, they
are not sure how severe the situation will be in the future, provoking even more