Minister demands modernization of the 2025/26 Harvest Plan

The seminar “Safra Plan – Agricultural Technology in Food Supply and Inflation Control”, held this Wednesday (28) in Brasília by Abimaq (Brazilian Association of Machinery and Equipment Industry), brought together authorities, parliamentarians and representatives of the productive sector to discuss the guidelines of the 2025/26 Safra Plan and the challenges of agricultural production.

During the opening ceremony, the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming, Paulo Teixeira, stated that the country needs to accelerate the modernization of the countryside, especially for small and medium-sized producers. “The hoe is a thing of the past and that is why we have to mechanize,” said the minister, highlighting the need for the country to invest in mechanization, irrigation and the machinery industry to ensure greater productivity, income and food security.

Teixeira also argued that the seminar should be the starting point for a permanent process of dialogue between the government, industry and the productive sector, aiming to build a more robust and modern Harvest Plan that is aligned with current needs. “To stimulate technology, mechanization, Brazilian industry, its modernization, and to enable Brazil to take another step towards becoming an agricultural powerhouse and in its strategic role in the world,” he added. 

Role of BNDES and other financial agents

The minister also proposed that BNDES and other financial agents be more directly involved in the debate, to expand credit lines aimed at acquiring machinery, irrigation and technologies that increase rural productivity.

In the view of Abimaq’s CEO, José Velloso, the Safra Plan is not just a credit program, but an essential public policy for the country’s economic and social development. “It means greater profitability for producers and more food for the population. In the current context of high interest rates, a business environment that is resistant to new investments, and insufficient profitability in agriculture to maintain a financially healthy activity, the Safra Plan is crucial, as it has the potential to stimulate planting and investments, generating positive results for society as a whole,” he highlighted. 

According to Velloso, the country expects to harvest around 330 million tons of grain this year, but has storage capacity for only 212 million, which compromises the profitability of producers and the quality of production. “This deficit of almost 40% compromises the quality of production and reduces the profitability of the producer. Investing in silos, drying and logistics infrastructure is as strategic as planting,” he assessed. 

The executive also drew attention to irrigation, capable of increasing the number of harvests per year and productively using areas previously considered marginal.

“That is why this seminar is so important. Our goal is to contribute to the debate aimed at improving public policies for the agricultural sector. We want to collaborate in the construction of a robust Harvest Plan that fulfills its mission of driving economic growth, promoting food security, controlling inflation and driving income generation and prosperity in the countryside and in the city,” concluded Velloso.

Food security 

Abimaq’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Gino Paulucci, was blunt in reminding us that food security is directly linked to the country’s production capacity. “Food security is achieved through production,” he stated.

The Secretary of Agricultural Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Guilherme Campos Júnior, was also present at the opening of the seminar and reinforced the importance of the debate at a time when the government is finalizing the formulation of the 2025/26 Harvest Plan.

“The Safra Plan is the longest-lasting and most representative government plan for our country. It plays a very important role and, if at the beginning of its conception it was largely responsible for financing agriculture, today it is more than that. We have to keep up with everything that the sector has created. Logistics, storage and irrigation are needs created by a rural producer who did not respect geographical limitations, explored places that were unthinkable 50 years ago in agricultural activity and transformed Brazil in recent years from being the largest importer of food to the largest exporter of food in the world,” he said.

Storage challenges

Federal deputy Alceu Moreira warned about the lack of long-term planning for Brazilian agriculture and structural bottlenecks. “Regarding storage, we are unable to store even 30% of the grains we produce, which is detrimental and causes producers to lose sales power. Buyers of our product know this and pay the price they want, because they know that we have to sell the product. Storage is the impediment, and if I implement all these processes in our production, we will realize that Brazilian producers could have infinitely greater profitability if we guaranteed this,” he warned.

The seminar continued with technical panels on storage, irrigation and agricultural technology, bringing together experts, representatives from the government, industry and the production sector, all engaged in building solutions for a more robust and efficient Harvest Plan.