Brazil Announces Harvest Plan For Small Family Farmers 2024-25

The Brazilian government announced on Wednesday its annual Harvest Plan 2024/25 (Plano Safra 2024/25). The plan consists of two main parts, one for medium and large size producers involved in production agriculture and one for small family farmers focusing on food production for Brazilian consumers.

Brazil’s harvest plan primarily consists of lower interest loans for production agriculture that are usually more favorable to medium and smaller producers and less favorable for larger producers. Loans are also available for machinery purchases and capital investments for such things as storage units and irrigation systems. The loans for small family farmers carry ultra-low interest rates of 2% to 3%.

The Harvest Plan 2024/25 offers increased incentives for small family farmers. The Program to Strengthen Family Farming (Pronaf) will offer 10 lines of credit for family farmers at a subsidized interest rate of 3% and 2% for the production of organic products. The Pronaf program will have resources totaling R$ 76 billion, which is 6.2% more than 2023/24 and 43.3% more than 2022/23.

Pronaf will focus on putting more food on Brazilian tables. A new focus of the program will be “Rice for People” (Arroz da Gente) with the goal of increasing rice production by 200,000 tons. Loans will also be available for 700 agricultural cooperatives to assist family farmers.

The Pronaf Program will have resources available for crop and fiber production, fruit and vegetable production, equipment purchases, silo and warehouse construction, cold storage construction for fruits and vegetables, refrigerated milk tanks for dairy farmers, fish farming, and fishing. The goal is to improve the lives of millions of small family farmers in Brazil while increasing the production of food items such as rice, dry beans, manioc root, fruits, vegetables, and milk.

Tags: crop, food, dry beans, vegetable, harvest plan, Brazil, rice, agriculture, Milk, Production, Dairy