Temer cuts Incra's funding earmarked for rural settlements.

247 - The changes promoted by the Michel Temer government within the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) resulted in the dismantling of published policies aimed at rural areas. Since April, Incra employees have been receiving incentives to grant individual property titles, instead of strengthening rural settlements.

According to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, a "title-o-meter" was created, a kind of ranking that rewards the teams of the regional superintendencies that grant the most individual titles with the distribution of laptops.

Unlike settlements, which require investments in infrastructure, schools, health centers, roads, and other improvements, individual properties are excluded from these demands. "Incra grants these titles precisely so that families can move out of the government's control," says Reginaldo Marcos Félix de Aguiar, director of the National Confederation of Associations of Incra Employees.

According to organizations linked to the field, as a settler, the farmer has access to financing from the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (Pronaf), with low interest rates. However, with the land title, the farmer has to seek financing from private banks, making credit more expensive.

As a result of this policy, organizations fear that small farmers will end up selling their properties to other farmers, increasing land concentration and widening inequality in the countryside.

For 2018, the situation is expected to become even more evident. Although the Draft Budget Guidelines Law (PLDO) stipulates a reduction of only 3% in the Incra budget, the funds allocated to settlements are expected to fall by 64%, in addition to an 86% reduction in the areas of technical assistance and rural extension, and an 83% reduction for the acquisition of rural properties for agrarian reform purposes.