(Photo: Disclosure)
The Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Favarosaid that the federal government is working to help producers affected by fires and that it will sign a measure on Monday (23) to provide access to the water line credit to recover areas affected by recent fires. “Today we will sign contracts with some producers from Ribeirão Preto, Southern Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and the Pantanal, affected by the fires, so that they can access these same lines of credit and recover their areas,” he said during a participation in the UBS Agriculture Investment Conference.
The initiative is part of the Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems Financing Program (RenovAgro), an initiative to recover degraded areas, such as pastures, and increase productivity in the agricultural sector. The program has grace periods and competitive interest rates, the minister assured.
“We raised US$1.3 billion for this program, which is equivalent to approximately R$7 billion more,” he said. These resources will be added to what was already foreseen in the Harvest Plan, totaling approximately R$14 billion, according to the minister. He explained that the program will be supported by an equalization of interest rates, with more favorable conditions for producers. “This new equalization made by the National Treasury will have an interest rate of 6.5% per year, with a three-year grace period and ten years to repay,” he explained.
Fávaro also highlighted the importance of environmental preservation for the future of Brazilian agriculture and the impact of climate change on the sector. According to him, “climate change is here to stay” and has caused extreme events in the country, such as droughts and heavy rains. “Look at what we are going through with the fires. But five months ago, we were dealing with excessive rain,” he said.
For Fávaro, environmental preservation cannot be separated from agricultural production. “The big change is the recognition of the importance of environmental preservation for the stability of food and energy production,” said the minister, adding that the preservation of the Cerrado forests, for example, “becomes a matter of survival for this activity.”