Government institutes program to stimulate rice production

The Federal Government has instituted the Arroz da Gente Program. Interministerial Ordinance No. 15, which makes the actions official, was published on Wednesday (11), in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU), signed by the ministers of Agrarian Development and Family Farming (MDA), Paulo Teixeira, and of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger (MDS), Wellington Teixeira.

The program, which has the participation of the National Supply Company (Conab), aims to encourage rice production in areas that have already cultivated the grain, in addition to ensuring technical monitoring and the guarantee of commercialization of the product. The measure will include credit with lower interest rates, development, technical monitoring, commercialization guarantee, in addition to seeking to facilitate access to technologies adapted to the local reality, including small machines, harvesters and small drying silos.

“Arroz da Gente symbolizes the rediscovery in the country of this food that is so important to Brazilians, as it makes visible and values ​​the rice production of indigenous peoples, traditional peoples and communities, and family farming,” highlights the Program coordinator at Conab, Maria Kazé.

In this first stage, the Program will be implemented in 36 territories in 148 municipalities, distributed across 17 states in the North, Northeast, Central-West and Southeast regions. Approximately 10 thousand producing families will receive incentives to improve rice cultivation, whether through technical support, support for the acquisition of low-impact technological packages (acquisition of machinery, construction of storage silos) in order to eliminate manual harvesting, and marketing. Among the tools already in place and implemented by Conab that can be used to support the flow of the product are the Food Acquisition Program (PAA), among others.

Purchase of rice

In September of this year, Conab purchased 100 tons of rice from farmers in the Brejão dos Negros quilombola territory, located in the municipality of Brejo Grande, in Sergipe, with R$750 earmarked for this acquisition, which symbolized the first action of Arroz da Gente.

The rice acquired from the Brejão dos Negros quilombola territory is being supplied to approximately 15 solidarity kitchens in Sergipe in order to supplement the diet of people in situations of food and nutritional insecurity served by the beneficiary institutions.