Resolution speeds up aid to rural producers affected by fires in São Paulo

Rural producers affected by fires in several regions of the State of São Paulo are counting on further help to recover the affected areas. Through a resolution, the Department of Agriculture and Supply of SP instituted the Declaration of Fire Occurrence (DOI), within the scope of the Comprehensive Technical Assistance Coordination (CATI), for notification of areas affected by fire on rural properties in São Paulo, with the purpose of promoting recovery and resumption of productive activities.

“This is a widely publicized emergency situation, caused by fires caused by exceptional conditions, such as strong winds, high temperatures and low relative humidity. We have to speed up and standardize the processes to resume activities and mitigate losses,” explains Guilherme Piai, Secretary of Agriculture of São Paulo.

The Fire Occurrence Declaration, related to Decree No. 68.805, must be requested by the owner, agribusiness or tenant at the CATI unit responsible for the region of the affected property. “It is very important that producers seek out the Agriculture Houses in their regions to expedite the process and obtain working capital as quickly as possible and, thus, resume their activities”, explains Antonio Goto, technical advisor to the Agriculture Department.

According to Goto, the declaration allows the producer to regularize his situation with the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), so that he can carry out environmental recovery and resume his agricultural production.

It is worth noting that to request the DOI from CATI, it is important that owners have documents on hand, such as:

• Declaration of the date of the start of the fire outbreak, with climate information obtained from an in-house or publicly accessible measuring station regarding relative air humidity, wind speed and average air temperature;
• Description of the activities and native vegetation affected by the fire, including the area of ​​cultivation or agricultural activity affected;
• Description of fire prevention and control measures adopted on the property
• Document proving possession or ownership of the rural property.

The DOI will be issued within ten business days, counting from the request and delivery of the information. The DOI will be issued after the joint analysis between the CATI technical report and the information provided by the owner.

“With the DOI in hand, the rural producer can resort to financial institutions in the market and also to credit lines linked to the São Paulo Agribusiness Expansion Fund (Feap), from SAA”, says Antonio Goto.

It is worth remembering that the fires in the state's rural areas have caused losses of more than R$2 billion to the São Paulo agribusiness sector. In view of this, at the end of August, the São Paulo government launched an emergency package of R$10 million to help producers affected by these forest fires. Through the São Paulo Agribusiness Expansion Fund (FEAP), affected producers can access a credit of R$50 thousand, with zero interest and a two-year grace period to start repaying, for maintenance and production recovery expenses.

The emergency actions had four guidelines: credit, legal security, housing recovery and discounts on items for reconstruction. Thus, there was the suspension of fines, considering the calamity; the recovery of rural properties together with the Housing and Urban Development Company (CDHU), and an agreement with private animal nutrition and input companies to reduce the cost of items needed for the reconstruction of crops and pastures.