Agriculture in Mato Grosso: Rural Development and Family Farming

Interview with Carlos Luíz Milhomem, State Secretary of Rural Development and Family Farming (SEDRAF)

What is general focus of the Secretary for Rural Development and Family Farming?

In general terms, we give support to developing family farms. Family farms that have less than 200 hectares and rural farm houses with less than 30 or 40 hectares. These are the farms that produce the majority of our food for internal consumption here in Brazil. These farms require support, whether they are on the periphery of the cities or further in the countryside. They are looking to the State to help them be incorporated into the system. It is a difficult process because many of these farmers have received little education, and many do not have a great deal of experience in agriculture. It is our role to provide a lot of the support for these farmers, in education, training, business management, etc.

Currently you do not have international agreements. Would you be interested in this kind of thing or in bringing experience and knowledge from abroad? If so, in which areas would you like to see this happen?

The areas that we deal with principally are dairy, fisheries, fruit and beekeeping. We also have a forestry system that works with the Brazilian rubber tree, cacao and guaraná. All of which are products that can be developed to be sold on the free market internationally. We are organising these farmers so that they are able to trade on the international market.

We are also developing the organic market. The country needs to have demand for these products; we are trying to organise and manage links between Europe and the USA, even with China to create this demand. This will allow us to specialise our agriculture in order to export our products. We have the resources to export our rubber and also now we are working particularly with guaraná which is a traditional plant that has become fashionable at the moment along with açai. We want to develop organic agriculture, respecting the environment.

What would you say are your aspirations? How would you like to achieve this foreign demand?

We are working on getting our products on the international market. Our perspective is that we must work together as a cooperative system and create interactions with foreign systems. We need to find where there is demand for our products.

We have abundant areas. We have water; we are one of the states in Brazil with the most water reserves. The Amazon River has its source in Mato Grosso. We have the Pantanal and the Amazon. We have the right climate to cultivate the majority of the crops that we consume, we can even grow wheat. We have wheat and tropical fruit initiatives and we even grow grapes in the São Francisco region. We have all this potential but we need the demand for it.

Until now, you haven’t gone out to look for the demand?

We haven’t had the ability to do so until now. In a way this interview is helping us to do so.

What are your greatest challenges at the moment?

If you think of development, you need to have policies which encourage development. We don’t have the state policies for this development. The state doesn’t have enough finances; we depend on the federal government to be able to develop family agriculture. This means we have to work vertically and there are differences in opinions between the state and federal governments.

The settlements that we have come to are regimented by the federal government and the INCRA – The National Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform. All the policies of development have to go through this institute.

We have difficulties in terms of land regulation because the majority of our farmers are dependent on INCRA’s decisions as well as the regulatory environmental reforms. This is why we are working to give our farmers the freedom to work on their land. We have to ensure we can have international interaction and business. We need to make the most of our ability to compete in the market and our environment which is so well suited for agriculture. Mato Grosso is effectively the granary of Brazil and we have to work to be able to continue fulfilling this role and potentially becoming the granary for other countries, too. We are growing soybean, maize, cotton and we are rearing meat. We produce 20 of the most common foodstuffs of the average Brazilian family and we also produce crops for animal feed.

What are the goals you have for the next 2 years?

The first goal is to reinforce the productive chains that are the most lucrative, particularly the dairy industry and the fisheries. We are now working with fresh water fisheries selling to the main supermarkets of the central south of the country, which is where the greatest demand for this fish comes from. We are also important producers of chicken; this market is growing all the time. We do produce chickens on an industrial scale but we are also working with small farms producing organic hens and free range hens and eggs which are in high demand nowadays nationally and internationally.

Secondly, we are also working to develop bio diesel. Our federal government has established the policy whereby of all the oil that goes towards making bio diesel, 10 to 15% must come from family agriculture in order to strengthen and develop family agriculture in Brazil. We produce sunflower oil and soya oil and are beginning to work with palm oil. All the time we are adapting our production to the demand. We have to find out what is in demand and where the market is, to then be able to develop our agriculture and our production.

Are you currently looking for a market for your products?

At the moment we don’t have the opportunity to go out with our products to offer them to external markets. For the moment we have to welcome buyers here in Mato Grosso.

How do you think people or investors view Mato Grosso in terms of agriculture?

Our traditional products are already known on the international market. Our potential is being recognised and more and more foreign companies and groups are coming in to develop not only the production aspect but also the commercialisation side. We have seen development in transport and delivery systems to the ports in the Pará region, the railway from São Paulo to Cuiabá and also the railway to Santarém. What really worries us is that this structure of navigation and transport is being built precariously. There are great waterways that can be used through the Amazon for transportation all the way to the port of Santos.

This state is approximately 974 000 m2 and our population is only about 3 million. We need to create more opportunities and bring more people in to develop production here in Mato Grosso.