Participate for rural areas to change

By Aniérica Almeida
Technical pedagogical coordinator of Centro Sabiá and CONDRAF advisor

For 25 years, the National Council for Rural and Sustainable Development ( CONDRAF ) has been a space of resistance and importance for proposing, supervising and monitoring public policies aimed at rural development in Brazil. With a broader view of the rural environment, the public policies discussed in this space aim to meet the concrete demands of the peoples of the countryside, waters and forests.

The result of the organization and struggles of social movements and civil society organizations, it has a history of important achievements for Family Farming and Agroecology. At the end of the 1990s, it influenced the creation of a specific ministry for Agrarian Development, held historic conferences such as the two National Conferences on Sustainable Rural Development and the 2nd Conference on Technical Assistance and Rural Extension, the latter of which was carried out with great determination by civil society organizations and social movements, even in the face of the coup against President Dilma Rousseff.

The creation and improvement of public policies such as the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming, Technical Assistance and Rural Extension, the National Policy for Agroecology and Organic Production, the National Food Acquisition Program, the National School Feeding Program and the National Rural Housing Program are just some of the examples of public policies that are the subject of proposals, monitoring and qualifications by the 68 council members who make up this space today.

Today, after four years of a conservative government that wanted to put an end to all existing spaces for social participation, CONDRAF continues to echo the voice of the peoples within the different instances of Brazilian public power. In this return, guided by the need to rebuild the country, fundamental issues for the continuity of Family Farming and the strengthening of the agroecological transition are at the top of the agenda.

The current struggle is to secure more financial resources to support Family Farming, to reduce the use of pesticides, to develop strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate change and, above all, to ensure that the country continues to democratically promote the rights of the peoples of the countryside, waters and forests.