Brazil comes through with billions for farmers

[SASKFARMER3]

Brazil came up with money for its farmers wow.7.96 billion Canadian to be exact and aren't they or weren't they a year or two almost bankrupt. yet in Canada were always saying we cant afford to help our farmers.
What the heck is wrong when other countries see whats happening to rural but here we just don't get it. Who will be next to help their farmers Russia.

[WRAPper]

For those that hadn't read or heard of it.


Brazil to Give $6.84 Billion in Aid to Help Farmers (Update1)
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's government, the main backer of crop finance in the world's largest sugar, coffee and orange juice producing nation, unveiled a 14.6 billion real ($6.84 billion) agricultural-aid package as a weak dollar undermines farm income.

Farmers will get 1.2 billion reais of aid to pay freight costs and to finance crop options, allowing them to lock in prices, Agriculture Minister, Roberto Rodrigues said at a news conference in Brasilia. Government and non-government banks will also offer 5.7 billion reais to help sell the crop and store it after harvest, he said.

``The measures will help farmers recover their income and pay their debts,'' Rodrigues said. ``The government won't allow prices to fall, as there's a clear determination of President Lula for that.''

Drought, falling prices and a currency rally have cost Brazilian farmers 30 billion reais in export profits over the past two years, Rodrigues said. The financial aid may allow farmers to grow crops on 3.5 million hectares (8.65 million acres) of land that they had planned to eliminate from the planted area in October, Rodrigues said. Brazil planted 46.97 million hectares of grain last year, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Brazil's finance ministry will also ask Brazil's monetary council to approve a plan to give farmers more time to pay 7.7 billion reais of farm loans coming due this year, Rodrigues said. The council will meet in extraordinary session next week to consider the proposal and probably will pass it, Bernard Appy, executive secretary of the finance ministry, said at the same news conference. The measures will bring an extra cost of 1.28 billion reais that the government hadn't predicted, Appy said.

``The measures altogether are positive but insufficient,'' Antonio Ernesto de Salvo, the head of the National Agriculture Confederation, Brazil's biggest farming lobbying group, told journalists in Brasilia. The package is small, he said, ``for a gigantic sector that employs the biggest number of people in Brazil.''

[ivbinconned]

Notice the contradictory comments about "currency".???

[farmers_son]

I noticed the predictable comment from the ag sector that the amount of aid was too small. I also noticed Brazil farmers have 7.7 billion reals in government debt. The noose has been placed over their neck.

It is my opinion that this aid signals Brazil taking its place as a world agriculture leader. Now we should not think for a minute that this aid is really about helping its farmers. We know in Canada that farm aid ends up in the pockets of the companies that buy the farm supplies. For instance Cargill and companies like them. But Brazil has signaled that they are willing to step up to the plate and guarantee these multi national ag processing companies a cheap supply of raw product. These companies like Cargill are looking for that kind of signal from government and will increase their presence in Brazil as a result.

It seems to be world wide phenomena to subsidize farmers and encourage them to increase their debt load instead of pursing policies that would see them get higher returns from the market place. It is all about ensuring a cheap supply of primary agricultural goods to a handful of powerful agribusinesses.

[grassfarmer]

Absolute agreement farmers_son, excellent post!