Assessing Brazilian agri-food policies: what impact on family farms?

Regional Science Policy & Practice, 2024

This study aims to assess the economic impacts of the National Family Farming Strengthening Program (Pronaf) in the various Brazilian biomes. The impacts at the sectoral, regional, and macroeconomic levels, arising from increases in rural credit to farmers in Brazilian territory-family and non-family farmers separately considered-, are carried out using the Computable General Equilibrium model, TERM-Biomas, specially built for analysis of the rural sectors in the Brazilian biomes. The key conclusion is that all regions of the model win, in the most varied magnitudes. Regions with higher participation in family farming production earn more than others. Up to the year 2020, some regions-from the Caatinga biome-show comparative losses. This may be because traditionally family farming regions would have their demands for primary factors more drastically increased, investments and jobs migrate, for example, from those regions of Caatinga. When the results are analyzed in a wider time limit, however, the results suggest general gains. The more vulnerable and specialized in family farming sectors are the regions, the greater the gains.

Extensão Rural: Práticas e Pesquisas Para o Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar - Volume 1

The Food Acquisition Program (PAA) was created in 2003 by the Brazilian government to promote family farming and comprises actions as agricultural products distribution to people experiencing food insecurity and the formation of strategic stocks. This research aims to analyze organic food trade in PAA program context by considering the payout of organic products, the relative proportion of organic products traded and the diversity of products traded in Brazil. Thereby, analyzing the efficiency of this public policy in supporting family farmers. Our empirical results reveal that PAA program has no significant impact on the price increase of organic products on a national level. However, the additional percentage paid for organic products vary significantly among Brazilian states, with some states paying less for these products in some years while others pay more than the 30% foreseen by law. All states trade a small proportion of organic products in relation to the total products operationalized by PAA. Our results add valuable contributions to the literature by presenting evidence that smallholder organic agricultural production in Brazil is still very low and in need of stronger public actions. Besides these outcomes are also relevant for the guidance of public policies in other developing countries.

International Review of Public Policy , 2020

This article examines the recent processes of dismantling public policies oriented to promote or regulate family farming in Latin America. It addresses two main questions: How and why were these policies dismantled? Drawing on Bauer et al.'s (2012) analytical framework, the article examines the modalities and stages of the process of dismantling family farming policy instruments in Brazil and Argentina. Likewise, it analyzes the process's causes by delving into structural , contextual and institutional factors. It adopts this framework, originally developed for social policies in Europe, to analyze rural policies in Latin America. From a theoretical point of view, the study suggests the importance of analyzing the resilience of policies and the mechanisms and strategies of resistance to governmental shifts as these affect the degree and direction that the process of dismantling may take.

Food Security, 2015

Poverty, food security, and sustainability are intimately intertwined, driving conflict and synergy between environmental and societal concerns. Brazil's flagship food security policies were implemented over a decade ago to address these issues simultaneously. Global institutions have pledged over 2 million US$ to develop similar programs in sub-Saharan Africa, yet empirical assessments of many aspects of these policies are still lacking. We focus on a case study in the state of Minas Gerais and assess the agricultural and environmental impacts of the Purchase with Simultaneous Donation (PSD) program. The PSD provides stable markets as incentives to diversify production, but we find no effect of participation on changes in local agricultural practices, production or income. While some farms are expanding, regional agricultural production appears to be declining due to local economic development and related shortages in farm labor. The PSD's limited impact arises because most farmers only participate irregularly, typically during the dry season when the program offers higher prices than the local market price. Furthermore, participation is constrained by the specific nature of PSD contracts and centralized governance of the program. We complement these findings with data from the Brazilian Ministry of Social Development and the 2006 agricultural census, which show substantial variation in the availability of PSD initiatives, and the funding allocated to them at local, regional and national levels. We suggest that adaptive management strategies that can respond to local market conditions could lead to more equitable and efficient food security and agricultural policies in Brazil and elsewhere.

Frontiers in sustainable food systems, 2020

The global narrative on food sustainability revolves around the need to improve food security, right to food, environmental performance, social-ecological resilience, reducing poverty, and inequality. Such principles were guiding a food policy shift for addressing the needs of family farmers, taking place in Brazil. However, how these policies were seen from the point of view of family farmers has not yet been investigated sufficiently. Consequently, this paper presents the results of an assessment of how food policies have impacted the food system in terms of production practices, market structure, land access, and food security, through the perception of family farmers. Our study concerns the semi-arid part of the state of Bahia (Brazil), in which rainfed food systems prevail. The perception of family farmers on the food policies related to credit, public procurement, technology, knowledge, and land access showed three main results: (1) concerning production practices, there was an increase in crop diversification (formerly collected wild plants are currently cultivated) and the dissemination of agro-ecological techniques (organic matter as a fertilizer and seed bank). However, credit is limited, not being translated into significant investments in the production process; (2) with regard to market structure, the public food procurement programs created a specific market for farmers assuring to provide reliable and stable income and trade through economies of scale. The negative factor regarding public food procurement programs is the dependence of farmers from institutional markets organized by the government; (3) food security was increased, due to the stable income, but the lack of policies directed at on-farm autonomy makes production for self-consumption difficult to be achieved. Also, the legal basis for land access does not meet the expectations and needs of farmers, placing them in a position of vulnerability to land grabbing. We conclude that the new food public policies had positive impacts, through a double strategy, consisting in first, the improvement of individual food system activities, and second, interconnecting single food system activities in such a way that they create synergies among them, in view of basic principles of sustainable food systems.

2009

Granted authorization to release the Institutional Repository of the University of Brasilia (RIUnB) by the Center for Agrarian Studies and Rural Development of the Ministry of Agrarian Development, responsible for the publication of the work under the following conditions: available under Creative Commons 3.0 License, which allows you to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided that the author and licensor is mentioned. Can not use for commercial purposes nor adaptation.

Family farmers run more than 90% of the world's farms. They produce about 80% of the world's food and occupy 70-80% of agricultural land. These numbers prove that Family Farming is the form of agriculture in the world. However, food insecurity is more prevalent in these families. According to FAO, most of these people live in developing countries. Latin America and the Caribbean is home to 42 million foodinsecure people, so this crisis requests agricultural policies to reduce this chain of poverty. From this point of view, the article aims to characterize family farming between Brazil and Haiti in a comparative approach using data from various official sources. The aim is to use these data to understand the situation of family farming in these two countries and to analyses, the policies dedicated to the development of this sector.

in International Conference on Policy Diffusion and Cooperation São Paulo, UNIFESP 16-19/05/2018. Panel Social Policy Diffusion, 2018

The paper presents results of Transbrasil project " Dissemination of Brazilian public policies for family farming in Latin America and the Caribbean ". The main hypothesis of the research is that the South-South cooperation reveals an "hybridization" of several forms of policy internationalization: the policy-transfers; the transnational circulation of norms and standards through international organizations; the regionalization and regional integration, especially through civil society and social movements. The research focused in two processes: the characterization of the policy models in Brazil and of the transferred policies in the recipient countries; the identification and profile characterization of the main vectors and brokers of the policy diffusion. The diffusion of the public food purchase model was studied in Colombia, Haiti and Paraguay, the diffusion of territorial policies in Argentina, El Salvador and Uruguay. The results of the study confirm the imbrication and hybridization of these three modalities of dissemination of Brazilian public policies for family farming. Official diplomacy and intergovernmental integration mechanisms are complemented by the dissemination of "bottom-up" policy models through social participation, as in the case of REAF, Via Campesina or agroecology and SAN instruments. 2

International Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Research and Studies, 2023

This paper aims to conduct a general review of academic literature to analyze the National Program for the Strengthening of Family Farming (Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar-PRONAF), established in Brazil by Presidential Decree in 1996 to promote Family Farming through credits subsidized by the Brazilian State and, in this way, meeting the demands of the social agents involved in this branch of activity. For a better understanding of the theme, this paper is divided into four sections: An Introduction, which presents papers explaining the historical context of the creation and lines of credit with financing conditions, evolution, and structure, which contains papers showing the changes that have occurred in the structure over the years. In the objectives and distribution of resources, works have been presented that point out possible problems, such as the lack of equity in the PRONAF range in each Brazilian state, and in the economic and social development, where the impacts of the program have been highlighted by some authors and the most recent data about this public policy that aims to leverage the agrarian sector, especially Family Farming, are presented.

Ecological Economics, 2018

Several studies have compared the profitability of organic and conventional producers, but present very conflicting results. Although in the majority of these papers selection bias due to observables is accounted for, the possibility of selection based on unobservables has been largely overlooked. In this paper, we compare these two types of producers using a large and unique data of about 4.2 million family farmers in Brazil. Standard propensity score matching techniques are used together with the procedure recently developed by Oster (forthcoming) to address concerns about omitted variables. Our results confirm the working hypothesis that organic producer's profits are lower than conventional ones.

2013

In order to understand Latin America’s current experience with small-holder farming, it is helpful to understand two key changes in the region’s rural areas that have been evolving mainly over the past two decades: farmers’ increased access to markets and diversification of their income sources. This Brief takes a closer look at these two key evolutions, assessing the impact on small farmers and some of the driving forces, in particular by analysing the liberalisation policies of the 1990s and 2000s that played a strong role in driving forward these changes. It concludes by presenting some of the present policy priorities as well as some lessons learned based on the Latin American experience. SUMMARY Policy Brief

INTRODUCTION: Brazil has experienced rapid change in land use and food production. Government prioritizes both increasing monocultures of agribusiness and ensuring Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) to reduce hunger. Family farming is most responsible for food production. OBJECTIVE: To assess possible relationships between changes in land use in relation to the production of Non-Food (corn, sugarcane, soybean, eucalyptus, cotton) and of Food (rice, beans, cassava and wheat) between 1996 and 2006 and FSN in farmers. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 107 families of small farmers intentionally selected in Ibiúna, São Paulo, Brazil, based on a Food/Non-Food Index (FFIx) in an attempt to relate with FSN. FFIx was derived from the 1996 and 2006 agricultural censuses. A questionnaire was applied covering socio demographic issues, land use and current FSN using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (EBIA) and compared to the Past-EBIA for the years 1996 and 2006 was applied. Changes in land u...

DESCRIPTION 05/2015; 6(5): 3951-3956. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1239.8248

Agribusiness, 2019

Several countries in Central Africa face challenges of low food production and high incidences of poverty, particularly in rural areas. Several programs initiated in the region to increase food production and commercialization among smallholder farmers have had limited success. Over 80% of the farm households grow bananas and legumes as staple crops. We evaluate the impact of commercialization of these crops on-farm income and the dietary diversity of rural households in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We employ three methods: propensity score matching, endogenous switching regression, and IPTW on crosssectional data. We find that commercialization has a robust and positive significant effect on dietary diversity and farm income, even after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across the households. In particular, commercialization increases household incomes by 67% and dietary diversity by 11%. We find strong evidence of the impact of commercialization on incomes but little evidence of dietary diversity of rural households. Wider policy recommendations to raise the capacity of smallholders to produce for the market and improve their livelihoods are discussed.

Journal of Agricultural Science, 2016

In Brazil, Rural Credit and Technical Assistance policies for family farming were formulated with the goal of promoting rural development in a sustainable and integrated manner. This study is the result of the Monitoring and assessment of public policies for territory management in the Pará Amazon project, undertaken by the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), aimed to evaluate the main socioeconomic impacts and limitations for the execution of these policies in the Transamazonian Territory. It is characterized as qualitative and exploratory, developed from bibliographic research and field research, based on data obtained through interviews conducted with 22 families of farmers who are beneficiaries of Rural Credit, the B modality of the National Programme for Strengthening Family Agriculture (PRONAF) and of the Technical Assistance Policy, whose sample corresponds to 10% of total contracts made effective within that Territory, between the years of 2013 and 2014. In addition to these ...