CNA discusses main changes to credit and rural insurance in the Agricultural and Livestock Plan 2021/2022

The Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) held the live “Agricultural and Livestock Plan 2021/2022: main changes for credit and rural insurance”, on Wednesday (14/07).

The debate was moderated by the CNA's technical advisor for Agricultural Policy, Fernanda Schwantes, and had as participants the Undersecretary of Agricultural Policy of the Ministry of Economy, Rogério Boueri; the director of the Credit Department at SPA/Mapa, Wilson Araújo; and the director of the Department of Cooperatives and Market Access at SAF/Mapa, Márcio Madalena.

According to Fernanda, the objective was to discuss the changes that were made in the operationalization of the rural credit and insurance policy following the launch of the Agricultural and Livestock Plan (PAP) 2021/2022 and the Rural Credit Manual, where the National Monetary Council (CMN ) published 17 resolutions on the announced measures.

In the opinion of the CNA's technical advisor, despite the difficulties in building the PAP and an imbroglio related to the budget, approved close to the announcement of the Plan, the increase in the volume of resources by almost R$15 billion was positive.

“The prioritization of lines for small and medium producers and investment programs that the CNA identified as priorities, which are ABC (Low Carbon Emission Agriculture), Inovagro and the Warehouse Construction and Modernization Program (PCA), were very welcome to the sector,” she said.

For Wilson Araújo, in addition to increasing the volume of resources in relation to the previous PAP and prioritizing sustainable programs, the current Plan managed to serve all segments and categories of producers.

According to him, the pace of hiring is accelerated and higher than last year. Banco do Brasil had already exceeded R$3,6 billion in contracted operations and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDS) had filed more than R$2 billion until last week. “Producers who demand credit, both for investment and funding, can now forward their proposals to the financial sector,” he said.

The Undersecretary of Agricultural Policy at the Ministry of Economy believes that structuring measures such as the Agro Law, which expanded the offer of private credit for agribusiness, will favor access to resources. In his opinion, the opening of the equalization market for private banks, the reduction of administrative and tax costs (CAT) and the maintenance of real interest rates are other positive points of the PAP.

“With this competition increasing, we will destroy some myths that rural credit does not add value. The share of agriculture is growing in GDP and banks will not want to be left out of this”, declared Rogério Boueri.

Márcio Madalena praised the support measures for small producers brought by the PAP, such as the increase in resources for the National Agricultural Strengthening Program (Pronaf), of 19%, and the annual gross income for classification, which rose from R$415 thousand to R$500 thousand.

“We saw a modernization in agricultural policy for family farming. I believe we had a very interesting and important volume of resources, in addition to extremely attractive real interest rates.”