Titles given by Bolsonaro to settlers are ‘bread paper’, says minister – 01/28/2023 – Panel

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) considers void the main action of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) administration in the area of ​​agrarian reform, the distribution of property titles to settlers.

“It’s bread paper, it has no legal value”, says the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira. “They did it in a hasty, poorly done way, without passing legislation. We want to improve this program and deliver deeds to the settlers”, he says.

There were more than 340,000 bond deliveries during Bolsonaro’s term. The official discourse is that this represented the liberation of the landless from the MST domain, which the then president treated as an enemy.

In Lula’s government, the relationship with the movement will be very different, says the new minister.

“We are implementing an intense dialogue with all social movements, be it MST, Contag, women’s movements, black people’s. This ministry will have its doors open 24 hours a day. They are all partners”, says Teixeira, who is a federal deputy licensed by the PT in São Paulo .

The current government has not set a target for the settlement of families. According to Teixeira, studies and projections are still being made on how to distribute land. He promises a process with a lot of dialogue, based on three priority actions: expropriation, land purchase and destination for agrarian reform purposes of properties with judicial debts.

Teixeira says he intends to treat family farming as a priority, not just agrarian reform.

“We want to produce quality food to put on the people’s table, in large quantities and at a cheaper price. Brazilian agriculture has been hugely successful in terms of commodities, but has a smaller presence in terms of food,” he said. “The food is coming with a lot of poison for Brazilians”.

One of the actions he plans is to reactivate the PAA (Food Acquisition Program), a policy that provides for the purchase of 30% of food for programs against food insecurity produced by family farming. The amount foreseen in the budget for action is R$ 500 million, which Teixeira considers to be a reasonable level for 2023. “We are growing little by little”, he says.

The same percentage would be allocated to school lunch programs and the purchase of food for public bodies, such as hospitals and Army units.

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