Ministry of Agriculture publishes Action Plan for the Northeast

The Official Gazette of the Union published this Monday (19) ordinance which establishes the Action Plan for the Northeast (AgroNordeste). Coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, the plan aims to support the organization of agricultural chains, expand and diversify marketing channels, in addition to increasing productive efficiency and social benefit in the Northeast Region.

The plan is considered a priority by Minister Tereza Cristina, and has been designed by a multidisciplinary team since the beginning of the year. In May, the first meeting of the Central Coordination Committee of the Action Plan for the Northeast was held to define priorities for the region. 

In the first semester, the minister visited the states of Piauí, Ceará, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Alagoas, Bahia and Pernambuco, where she learned about different production and commercialization initiatives. After seeing up close the challenges faced by northeastern farmers, the minister and her team have worked to define special policies for agricultural production in the semi-arid, hinterland and caatinga.

Among its guidelines, the AgroNordeste plan defines that the actions undertaken by Mapa must provide solutions for the obstacles identified to the competitiveness of relevant agricultural areas or those with potential for development and support the improvement of production systems up to the stage of processing and processing of agricultural products from the region.

The program also provides support for expanding access for rural producers in the region to different markets, credit, technical assistance services and new technologies, mainly for the development of value-added products and strategies for coping with drought.

It was also published this Monday (19), the ordinance which establishes the plan management model. According to the ordinance, the AgroNordeste Management Unit, linked to Minister Tereza Cristina's office, the Central Coordination Committee and the State Coordination Committees are established to operationalize projects in local units.

The Central Coordination Committee is made up of all the ministry's secretariats and federal bodies linked to Mapa, such as the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the National Supply Company (Conab), the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) and the Brazilian Forest Service. , in addition to partner institutions, the National Rural Learning Service (Senar) and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae).

Initially, the work should focus on 11 micro-regions defined by Embrapa, but will later be expanded to other regions of the Northeastern Semiarid, with the aim of serving the largest number of small producers possible. Information on the results of implementing the plan must be disclosed annually in a report published by the AgroNordeste Management Unit.