Credit crisis worsens risks for rural producers.

Brazilian agriculture is at a decisive moment. In a structurally vulnerable sector – exposed to climate, exchange rates, market fluctuations, epizootics, public policies, and even international conflicts – any instability quickly translates into risk. Today, this risk has reached alarming proportions. There is a feeling of apprehension in the air. The growing number of rural producers, of all sizes, resorting to judicial reorganization (RJ) is the most compelling sign that something is profoundly wrong.

Across all production chains, without exception, production costs have skyrocketed. Dollar-denominated inputs, seeds, energy, and labor have become more expensive across the board. The result is cruel: squeezed margins, unviable businesses, and operations running at a loss. At the same time, the escalation of the Selic rate has made debts heavier and drastically increased the cost of capital, expanding indebtedness and stifling the producers' ability to react.

The lack of resources for rural credit has become a daily drama for the Brazilian countryside. The lines of credit for operating expenses and investments—which should guarantee stability, continuity, and planning—arrive late, arrive in insufficient amounts, or simply don't arrive at all. The scarcity of resources is currently the biggest obstacle to maintaining active production and avoiding an impending collapse. This is a point to which the Federal Government needs to turn its attention urgently.

The consequences of this imbalance will soon become apparent. Less access to credit means lower production, declining harvests, reduced supply, and inevitably, more expensive food for consumers. Brazil has already made this strategic mistake in the past and paid dearly for it with rising inflation. Repeating it now would be unforgivable.

The byproduct of this scenario is the explosion of requests for judicial reorganization, which already totaled 2.273 in 2024 alone—a 62% increase compared to the previous year, and continues to rise in 2025. While judicial reorganization is a legitimate instrument that rebalances the relationship between producers and financial institutions, it cannot become the norm. When thousands of agricultural entrepreneurs resort to this mechanism, what is in crisis is not just the ability to pay: it is the country's agricultural policy.

Extreme weather events, commodity price volatility, credit contraction, and economic instability have created a perfect storm. Rural producers, who sustain food security, the trade balance, and the economies of hundreds of municipalities, cannot be left adrift alone.

It is a matter of state responsibility to immediately increase the volume of subsidized resources for rural credit. Rural credit is not a favor, it is not a privilege: it is a structured public policy that guarantees production, supply, and economic stability. Without it, there is no strong agriculture, no vibrant countryside, no future.

Brazil needs to act before the crisis becomes irreversible. The agricultural sector is crying out for help — and ignoring this plea would compromise not only present production, but the future of the entire nation.

*Per José Zeferino Pedrozo, president of the Federation of Agriculture and Livestock of the State of SC (Faesc) and of the National Rural Learning Service (Senar/SC)