Lula delays disclosure of agrarian reform program promised to MST

The fifth month of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) third term came to an end without the presentation of the National Program for Agrarian Reform (PNRA). Defended in the campaign, reinforced in the transition period and in recent speeches by the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA), Paulo Teixeira, the program has not yet been released, even after promises that it would be presented in April. In more recent speeches, it was promised for May.

Asked about the presentation of the agrarian reform program, the MDA only said that the publication of the PNRA “will take place shortly” and that the information will be detailed when the announcement is made.

The ministry did not explain the reason for the delay, but it is known that the government has been facing attrition with Congress, in particular with the agribusiness caucus, which showed its strength in the Chamber of Deputies this week by approving the time frame bill for the demarcation of indigenous lands.

But even though Lula’s land reform plans have not yet been presented, minister Paulo Teixeira has addressed the subject in meetings at the MDA, publicized on social media, with the participation of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra). The minister has also advanced some points of the PNRA in interviews given to press vehicles, but without mentioning the exact date of presentation of the measures.

In an interview with Valor Econômico newspaper, Teixeira said that he would not say the size of the program, but stressed that it would be bigger than the program that President Lula launched in his first two governments.

“So it is, for this year, a substantial plan”, said the MDA minister. Teixeira also stated that the program should initially have a budget of R$ 500 million. The announcement should include offers of areas for agrarian reform in almost all Brazilian states.

Lula has agrarian reform as one of his main flags since his first inauguration as president of Brazil, in 2003. In the 2023 campaign government plan, agrarian reform was also pointed out, in the topics that dealt with the creation of job opportunities and employment and on food sovereignty.

Delay in announcements makes MST pressure for agrarian reform to increase

At the end of April, upon communicating the end of actions on the so-called National Day for Agrarian Reform, also known as “Red April”, the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) released a statement in which it stated that the General Secretariat of the Presidency and the Ministry of Agrarian Development assumed the commitment to launch in May an agrarian reform plan with actions, targets and schedules.

When participating in the fair promoted by the MST, on May 13, Minister Paulo Teixeira stated in a speech that an Agrarian Reform program would be announced by President Lula to recover unproductive lands still in May.

Despite the commitment, the program was not publicized. MST leaders had already been showing discontent with the delay. In an interview given to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper in mid-May, one of the main leaders of the MST, João Pedro Stédile, criticized the government’s actions to implement public policies of interest to the group, saying that the government is “too slow” and ” fearful”.

Stédile also said that he intends to put pressure on for agrarian reform to be intensified. “We will press. But we are going to defend the Lula government. […] At the same time, the MST will maintain its autonomy, from governments, churches and parties – no matter how much leftist parties turn up their noses”, he fired.

MST wants agrarian reform with lots close to urban centers

The member of the national coordination of the MST’s production sector, Diego Moreira, said that the movement hopes that the lands will be distributed by the government and that the new settlements will be concentrated in regions close to the center of the cities. In addition, the MST requests that the land be distributed in small lots, which allows more families to be accommodated in the settlements. The movement has around 500,000 families in settlements and another 80,000 in camps, and the size of the lots varies according to the region of the country.

The MST has also sought to make agricultural machinery and equipment available adapted to the needs of small family farmers. The idea was brought from China by the leader of the MST, João Pedro Stédile, who was in President Lula’s official entourage on a trip that took place in April. Since the trip, Stédile has been following the negotiations for an agreement between China, through the Agricultural University of China, and the Northeast Consortium for the donation of small tractors, intended for family farming.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) met with the National Council for Industrial Development (CNDI) and the Civil House, to discuss strategies to promote technological development and incentives for the national production of agricultural machinery and equipment. specific to meet the demands of family farming.

MDA will focus on Incra stock for agrarian reform

Although he has not yet detailed the new agrarian reform program, MDA minister Paulo Teixeira has already declared that he will use land in Incra’s inventory for the settlement of families.

“This agrarian reform program will now be resumed for the lands that were in stock within Incra. They have already been resolved in court. There has already been an imposition on the possession of these areas and public areas that should have been allocated earlier, but, due to an ideological aspect, they were not allocated and generated this huge damming that we are dealing with now”, pointed out Teixeira in an interview with Valor Econômico.

Among the measures that should be part of the program, Teixeira also mentioned that the government is studying a way to make seized lands owned by large Union debtors be used as payment so that they can be offered for agrarian reform.

“We are also going to try to go beyond this delivery, adjudicating (withdrawing through legal actions) lands of large debtors of the Union. There is already an agreement from the Ministry of Finance, which is the creditor, in the sense of awarding land from large debtors and allocating them to agrarian reform”, said minister Paulo Teixeira.

Teixeira bets on agrovillages, cooperatives and partnerships with universities

In an interview given to Rádio Gaúcha, Minister Paulo Teixeira advanced some points of the proposal, highlighting the commitment to agrovillages and cooperatives to organize settlements and the partnership with universities to carry out work within the scope of agrarian reform.

Teixeira also pointed out that the national agrarian reform program will be aimed at farmers who are in the Single Registry or who are camped. “That’s the purpose of making those people who wanted to work on the land have access to the land. Not just land, credit and housing. We are thinking about creating agrovillages and also stimulating cooperative production”, said the minister.

“This program will be carried out with strong advice from universities and federal institutes. They have a lot of knowledge in agricultural practices, in defining markets and also in teaching and rural extension”, added the MDA minister.

On a recent visit to the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), he participated in the Agro Centro-Oeste Familiar event and received proposals for strengthening and expanding the National Education Program for Agrarian Reform (Pronera), initiatives for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension ( Ater) and an application for the National School Feeding Program (Pnae).

Lula wants change in relation to Bolsonaro’s land regularization policy

During the electoral campaign, Lula and the PT criticized the policy of land regularization adopted in the four years of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). In the report produced after winning the 2022 elections, Lula’s transition team criticized his predecessor’s strategy, stating that the previous government “propagated the idea that it delivered land titles, when in fact it is just documents provisional and precarious”.

Bolsonaro’s action strategy, with regard to land issues, was to regularize areas, granting provisional or definitive titles to farmers. In this sense, Bolsonaro was the president who most issued titles for settlements in rural public areas of the Union and Incra, aiming at land regularization. There were more than 400,000 titles delivered to rural producers through the Titula Brasil Program, between 2019 and 2022. The number exceeds the 99,000 issued in Lula’s two terms and the 166,000 in the Dilma government, from 2011 to 2016.

In a meeting of the MST’s CPI, deputy Valmir Assunção (PT-BA) criticized Bolsonaro’s granting of titles. “Bahia has 50,000 settled families. Bolsonaro granted knows how many titles? He granted 400 titles to Bahia. There were 400 titles in a universe of 500,000 settled families. This is the lying, misleading propaganda, fake news with which we do not agree. And we are going to face it here”, said the deputy from Bahia.