The importance of the National Fertilizer Plan for food security

The risks to food security have never been so latent. The Covid 19 pandemic, the international crisis in the energy sector, the disruption of logistics chains and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine further exposed these risks and expanded our perception of the subject.

Food security has become a topic of discussion not only among political and agribusiness actors, but also, and mainly, among the urban population, who today know the risks better and recognize the importance of Brazilian agribusiness in mitigating them.

It is a fact that in many of the events that threaten food security we can do little or almost nothing, since most of them require actions from other countries and other actors. But it is also a fact that when it comes to Brazil – which is where we can and should intervene and influence – we can do a lot!

In recent years, we have had the implementation of very assertive public policies to reduce risks. One of them is the implementation of the National Fertilizer Plan (PNF), which has as its central objective the reduction of Brazil's dependence on fertilizer imports, which today is 85% of our needs.

The mechanisms provided for in the PNF aim to stimulate national production; the development of new technologies and products, aiming to increase efficiency; complementing and, in some cases, replacing conventional fertilizers used in our agricultural production.

And as a “state policy”, a structured and validated plan like the PNF needs to be carried forward, regardless of government changes, like the one we are experiencing today.

We are committed to demonstrating to the new government the importance of maintaining this public policy and the need to ensure that the people who worked on the design, implementation and management of the PNF – particularly career technicians – are kept ahead of the project, under penalty of discontinuation or delay of a plan that has proven to be effective and has been validated by the actors involved in this activity.

Conceived in the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic in the previous government, which was abolished by the new government, it is essential to determine which Ministry will be responsible for conducting the PNF.

Our understanding is that the PNF is coordinated by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, as it will be responsible for implementing public policies that enable investments for the development and modernization of national industry, in general, and for reindustrialization of strategic segments, such as fertilizers in particular.

We hope that the new government recognizes the strategic importance of the National Fertilizer Plan; that maintains the National Fertilizers and Plant Nutrition Council (Confert) in the way it was designed and that ensures assertive and democratic management, which allows us to achieve its objectives.

Clorialdo Roberto Levrero, president of the deliberative council of the Brazilian Association of Industries in Plant Nutrition Technology (Abisoit)