Family Farming: Brazil wants more, Brazil can do more.

The mixture of earth and hands sows the womb that gives birth to life and teaches that the bread that springs from it must be divided into great acts of love and humanity in the constant flow of the rivers of the soul and the simple things that the heart speaks.

We let ourselves be carried away by the horizons of the Brazilian interior, its teachings and colors that sprout from the ground, and by the sweat of men and women who awaken the sun and turn flowers into stars in the sky and sacred work into gazes of a thousand hopes.

Family farming has strength and tenacity, an incredible capacity and a grand perspective to feed our entire country, to eradicate hunger, poverty and misery, bringing dreams and possibilities of happiness to those who need it most.

Investing in this sector of the economy means believing in job and income generation; in sustainable development, respect for the environment, biodiversity and the ecosystem; in food security, combating rural exodus and the growth of the country in its essence and reality. 

Currently, family farming employs around ten million workers, according to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). It involves more than four million families. It is responsible for the economy of 90% of municipalities with up to twenty thousand inhabitants; 40% of the economically active population depends on this practice.

Furthermore, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), it occupies 23% of the national territory and 77% of establishments; 70% of farmers own between one and 50 hectares of land, and 70% of the food that reaches Brazilian tables is produced by this sector.

The importance of its production is thus represented: 70% of beans; 34% of rice; 87% of cassava; 46% of corn; 38% of coffee; 21% of wheat; 60% of milk; 59% of the swine herd; 30% of cattle; among others, such as fruits and vegetables.

Family farming has an annual revenue of US$55 billion, verified by agricultural censuses, according to Embrapa. Therefore, it is a sector of the Brazilian economy that deserves more attention. Governments need to have initiatives that guarantee the current situation and the sector's own expansion.

The challenges are enormous. Much has already been done, but we are fully capable of doing much more through good practices and public and state policies that involve the production chain, like a wheel, in which society is included, benefiting everyone.   

We need to think about how to keep young people in the countryside and how to improve the quality of life and work, together with women, the elderly, and retirees. We must be attentive to the masculinization of the countryside and the aging of the population, a situation that is worrying. Rural extension plays a fundamental role in this whole scenario. I recall here SENAR, EMATER, and EMBRAPA, which do excellent work.

The challenges don't stop there: increased productivity and improved results; availability of new technologies; better land distribution through agrarian reform, conservation, and new roads for transportation, electricity, and internet access; more comprehensive cooperatives, reaching where family farmers are and responding to their needs.

All the conditions currently provided by the Federal, State, and Municipal governments need to be strategically expanded and improved. In other words, we need to consider more alternatives, more credit, production insurance, incentives for marketing and financing. The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (Pronaf) needs to make more money available.

Now, during this pandemic, family farming is one of the sectors most affected and suffering the most. Furthermore, as an example of why this sector needs more attention, given the many other problems it faces, such as extreme weather events, I cite the case of our state of Rio Grande do Sul, which also had to contend with a severe drought. More than 400 municipalities declared a state of emergency. There was a drastic reduction in milk production. 

The National Congress needs to immediately approve Bill 735/2020, which brings together a set of emergency measures to help this sector affected by the pandemic. I express my respect for the movements of family farmers, unions, and social organizations, who, through much dialogue and argumentation, are working to secure the approval of this bill.

I believe that sustainable development and growth in Brazil, the reduction of social inequalities and income concentration, and the generation of jobs and income that we so desperately seek, depend on strengthening family farming and respecting the men and women farmers, the workers in the countryside.

But I also understand that this is not just a Brazilian issue: Family Farming is a global debate, a worldview that unites solidarity among peoples and is directly linked to the survival of humanity, since it is through it that more than 50% of the food is produced in the world.