The Family Farm, the hands which feed a nation

1. The Family Farm, the hands which feed a nation

2. FETRAF is involved in shaping public policy • A social and labour union based family-farm organisation, the Federação dos Trabalhadores e TrabalhadorasnaAgricultura Familiar [Federation of Family Farmers and Smallholders] (FETRAF-BRASIL), founded in 2004, plays a direct part in shaping the public policy which governs the sector. • Operating in 18 of Brazil’s states, the Federation covers more than 600 unions and union associations in over a thousand municipalities, representing nearly 500,000 associated family farmers. • By participating in discussions as part of councils, theme-based chambers and forums, among others, the organisation has become established over time as Brazil’s family farmer representative, acting as the organisation responsible for urging and calling for the re-shaping and extension of public policy, while also adopting the role as the effective purveyor of these policies to ensure that they are accessible to citizens in a position of social vulnerability.

3. Action Operating in collaboration with the authorities, FETRAF is working to encourage the sector to develop and become involved in: • Practical agro-ecological production alternatives; • Access to research, technology and technical support which is both focused on, and specific to, the family farm; • Health, culture and leisure; • Education; • Public policy concerned with production and marketing, reliable markets and fair prices, etc.

4. FETRAF-BRASIL successes Marketing • Foodstuffs Acquisition Programme (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos - PAA) • Thanks to the unions and organisations, family farms have been organised into production and marketing cooperatives in such a way that smallholder-produced foodstuffs are used to supply sectors of the population experiencing food-insecurity and/or are used to build up food stocks. • National School Meals Programme • Under Law No. 11.947/09,municipal authorities are obliged to purchase a minimum of 30% of family farm produce for school meals. The buying procedure bypasses tender bidding and must involve agricultural reform settlements, traditional indigenous communities and “quilombola” (ex-slave) groupings as a matter of priority. • Minimum Smallholding Price Guarantees (Programa Garantia de Preços Mínimos para Agricultura Familiar - PGPM) • One of the former claims made by FETRAF was that it was covered by a government policy which would set minimum purchase prices for family farm produce so that scale and production costs were factored in. The objective of this policy announced in the Safra Family Farm Plan 2011-2012 is to provide producers with the opportunity to argue for fairer market conditions via agricultural negotiation procedures. • Establishment of the Specific State Health Inspection Law covering Small-Scale Farming and Agricultural Industry (Law10.507/2000) • The State federation has created and coordinated a Forum of Entities in Defence of Family Agriculture in State of São Paulo, which made it possible to pass the law.

5. Ecological gardening – the Family Smallholding • An experiment has been carried out in the Quilombola Community of Grossos, Bom Jesus Municipality, to make use of the family garden for the organic production of vegetables and fruit by direct marketing, promoting marketing success and the involvement of the family in the entire production process; food security and income. • State fair for Creole Seeds and Organic Produce • Held seven years ago in Mato Grosso do Sul, this is seen as one of the major exhibition events for family farming in the State. It included displays of technology, seminars and training courses whereby producers were not only able to exhibit and market all their produce, but also to learn about the techniques and technologies which were applicable in their production units.

6. Education upgrade programme for young and adult farmers • In 2001, with funding from the Unemployed Worker Fund (Fundo de paro do Trabalhador – FAT), the São Paulo State Federation ran this programme training 240 family smallholders, with a certificate issued by the Ministry of Education upon completion of the course.   • Leadership training programme • 2002 saw the founding of a programme to organise campaigns for the prevention of sexually-transmissible diseases, HIV/AIDS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, or the state HIV/AIDS programme, the Regional Health Coordination Systems and their Municipal single health systems. This programme has been run in the Campinas, Vale do Ribeira, Alto Ribeira, and PresidentePrudente regions, and has trained 84 leaders, 21 in each region. • The First Family Farming Technical School: • Another success for the state federation in 2004, established on July 3, and now regularly passing 100 students each year. The project was made possible thanks to an agreement between the Paula Souza State Technological Education Centre (Centro Estadual de EducaçãoTecnológica Paula Souza – CEETESP), a the Land Institute Foundation and this association. Coordination and support for the school will be in the hands of the ÁguaAzul District Settlers’ Association, in Itaberá.  • Todas as Letras (All the Letters) • The youth and adult literacy project was coordinated by the Centre in 2004, in partnership with the Single Workers’ Centre (Central Única dos Trabalhadores - CUT). Over 5,000 people have benefited from this throughout the state, mainly in the poorer regions of the Alto and Vale do Ribeira, in São Paulo. Education • Note: It should be pointed out that successes in this presentation refer to specific states, leadership training programmes and education upgrades and the Todas as Letras [All the Letters] programme also takes place in a number of the states in Brazil.

7. PRONERA • Starting in 2007, a number of rural social movements together with INCRA succeeded in setting up the National Educational Programme on Agricultural Reform (Programa Nacional de Educação na Reforma Agrária - PRONERA). It concentrates on training young people from family smallholdings in the agricultural and human sciences. It has been possible to register 120 young people in degree courses in teaching and agriculture, in partnership with the Federal University of São Carlos (Universidade Federal de São Carlos - UFSCAR), INCRA and social movements.

8. Land tenure credit • The National Land Tenure Credit Programme (ProgramaNacional de CréditoFundiário), set up in 2003 and supporting the purchase and extension of the holding, is seen as a policy complementary to agricultural reform. • As well as proposing a development model based on cutting red tape associated with access to land and the effectiveness of agricultural reform, FETRAF is also working to encourage the programme by developing a project for promoting land tenure credit and encouraging membership of the organisation. • As professionals in the field of technical assistance, qualified to meet the needs of family farmers, the technical staff support the producers by drafting finance proposals, documentation and support for lodging the proposals with the relevant bodies. • The goal is for the farmers to be able to access credit so that by acquiring their own land they will be able to improve the quality of their lives.

9. Housing • The National Rural Housing Programme (ProgramaNacional de Habitação Rural - PNHR) • Before the Federal Government set up its National Housing Policy, the National Rural Housing Programme (ProgramaNacional de Habitação Rural - PNHR) in 2009, FETRAF, was already working to make the Government aware of the need for a specific policy to cope with this population and, via the Family Farm Housing Cooperatives, was already busy building homes in rural areas. • In total, over 30,000 homes have already been delivered.

10. FETRAF is making a dream come true A HOME OF YOUR OWN

11. INTERNATIONAL ACTION * United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 16) • On December 8 2010, at the 16th Conference, FETRAF-BRASIL received a delegation from the Single Workers’ Centre, and tabled proposals that discussions should be held regarding aspects of the National Policy on Climate (Política Nacional sobre Mudança Climática - PNMC) and the Climate Fund. • The proposals included: • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40%; • Backing the plan to ensure that temperature rises should not exceed 2º C, • Finance for establishing a fund to underpin climate justice by covering existing initiatives and suggesting new ones. * Interchange in Africa in 2007

12. FETRAF-BRASIL • FETRAF originated as part of the powerful campaign by Brazilian family smallholders to seek a better standard of living which would generate income and allow access to health, education, culture, infrastructure and to leisure, and which in general would give rise to conditions which would allow the workers, and particularly the young, to survive in rural areas. • With the aim of implementing a sustainable development model and agricultural reform, the organisation operates via the democratisation of access to land and respect for the regional and cultural diversity of the people to ensure observation of full citizenship rights and solidarity, to raise awareness of and extend Human Rights, to eliminate deep-rooted social inequality, and in particular to eradicate poverty and hunger.

13. Elisângela Araújo, General Coordinator of FETRAF-BASILContact: elisangela@fetraf.org.brFETRAF-BRASILAddress: SCS Qd. 1 Bl 1 Ed. Márcia *Sala 309*Brasíla- DFCEP: 70307-900Contact: (61) 3041-5646