Civic organizations uniting field workers responded on Friday (17) to the veto of President Jair Bolsonaro (non-partisan) on Bill (PL) 823/2021, which included measures to help family farmers affected by the pandemic. The proposal was recently approved by the National Congress after a long legislative journey that involved popular sectors and various political groups from both houses.

“It would be a surprise if he approved the bill, because this already happened last year. What this president is doing is barbarism. This is a political veto because he knows the origins of the LP, which was created alongside popular rural movements, trade union movements, “recalls Mateus Quevedo of the Small Farmers’ Movement (MPA), referring to Bolsonaro’s repetitive behavior up to the agenda for the sector.

In an official justification for the veto, the former captain said he was “a legal obstacle to not providing an estimate of the budgetary and financial implications.” In August of last year, he cut most of the points of PL 735/2020, the basis of which was the same as the draft, which was vetoed on Friday.

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In response, the opposition returned the sections cut by the president and compiled measures in PL 823, presented this year. The emergence of two PLs came from the demands made by public organizations in rural areas to the deputies of the PC collegium, who formatted the measures and submitted a proposal to the Chamber.

The text called for, among other things, the provision of emergency assistance to stimulate the production of small farmers. The idea is for each family to receive a one-time contribution of R $ 2,500, which rises to R $ 3,000 for centers headed by women. And for those who have submitted projects for the introduction of water access technologies, funding will reach 3,500 reais.

Another important aspect of LP was the forecast of the creation of the Emergency Assistance Program for Family Farms, which will be managed by the National Sales Company and will purchase products from farmers intended for people in situations of food and nutrition insecurity.

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“Women, once again, will suffer the most, because they are the ones who feel the hunger knocking on the door, they are the ones who should try to solve the problem in the family as a whole. So receiving this news is like being shot right in the chest again, ”says farmer Adclide Rocha of the Peasant Women’s Movement (MMC).

The LP also established measures to revise the conditions for granting rural loans and extend banking terms for workers in this sector. It also provided for the automatic provision of a Crop Guarantee to peasants eligible for benefits until December 31, 2022, subject to the submission of an inspection report confirming crop loss during the pandemic.

Mateus Quevedo notes that the lack of government incentives for smallholder production ultimately hurts other workers by fueling food inflation in the consumption chain.

“This will increase hunger. And this is because from the moment you take resources from family farming, you are cutting back on food production in rural areas, and people are increasingly turning to markets that, to top it off, sell processed foods, transgenic foods, etc. Therefore, some products, such as rice and beans, increase in price due to increased demand, ”says the farmer.

Presidential vetoes can only be overturned by the National Congress by a vote. “For our part, we’re going to keep fighting and putting pressure from municipalities and states to get this to Congress and to have the power to overturn the veto,” says Adclid Rocha.

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Edition: Vinicius Segalla