Government will create land shelf after Lula’s request – 08/10/2023 – Power

Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) published this Thursday (10) a normative instruction with procedures for the declaration of social interest of lands that will be used for new projects of agrarian settlement.

The measure comes after President Lula (PT) declared that Incra should not wait for new invasions to offer properties and create a policy of settlements. His government would, therefore, maintain a “shelf” of unproductive and vacant land to be used for settlements.

The normative instruction was published in this Thursday’s (10th) edition of the Official Gazette of the Union. It establishes procedures for the declaration of social interest with the purpose of creating settlement projects in public areas of Incra or of the Union, which are under the organ management.

The act provides that the cases will be analyzed by the regional superintendencies of the body.

A technical opinion will be required for each area, which must take into account the conditions of access and infrastructure in the property to install the families, the existence of other projects and settlements and consumer centers —to integrate production and access to the market—, if any camps identified in the region, claiming land, among others.

The situation of the property in relation to the area of ​​influence of indigenous lands, quilombola territories and conservation units must also be observed.

The first months of the Lula government were marked by a series of invasions by the MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra). On two occasions, the movement invaded farms belonging to Embrapa.

The actions caused wear and tear on the government, at a time when Planalto seeks to improve its relationship with agribusiness, a sector that maintains a close relationship with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The Chamber of Deputies installed a CPI to investigate the invasions and the relationship between the movements and public agents.

The CPI, however, was the target of a coordinated action by Planalto and Centrão and therefore should not be extended.

The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) accepted a PT request and canceled Minister Rui Costa’s (PT-BA) summons to the CPI. On another front, the leaders of the PP, Republicans and União Brasil removed from the commission names considered to be strongly opposed to Lula.

At the time of the invasions, Lula had asked the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture and Incra to offer a settlement policy before the actions of social movements. The agent then asked for a “land shelf”.

“I spoke with minister Paulo Teixeira [Desenvolvimento Agrário e Agricultura Familiar] these days: ‘Hey, Paulo, why do we have to wait for the movement to invade a land for us to send Incra to assess whether it is productive or unproductive?'”, said Lula, during live on social networks.

“Instead of people invading, we offer [as terras], organize. This is something new that I did not think about in the first and second terms. I thought now and let’s do it. We are going to make a shelf of the so-called unproductive lands in this country and vacant lands that we can make an agrarian settlement, for those who want to work in the field without having to fight with anyone”, he added.