University of São Paulo: Government transforms agrarian reform into a program for the delivery of titles to settlers

THEbudget for land acquisition fell from R$930 million in 2011 to R$2.4 million this year. With the discretionary budget of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), the same thing happened: from R$ 1.9 billion in 2011 to R$ 500 million in 2020. land by farmers”, says Ademir de Luca, a senior technician at the Department of Economics, Administration and Sociology at USP’s Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture (Esalq), a specialist in family farming.

To Jornal da USP no Ar 1st Edition , Luca brings a story about the issue. He says that the number of settlements increased during Fernando Henrique’s government and reached its maximum during the Luiz Inácio government, when, between 2007 and 2008, 138,000 people were settled. The number starts to drop during Dilma Rousseff’s term. In the government of Jair Bolsonaro, less than 2,000 families were settled.

land titling
The researcher criticizes the transformation of agrarian reform into titling. He explains that the government now gives the land title to the farmer who is already settled. “The government is taking away its obligation to accompany the settlers and provide them with conditions”, says the professor.

Luca recalls that agrarian reform is provided for in the Constitution and is an obligation of the State. In it, in addition to providing the land, the government needs to create an infrastructure for production, education and health, for example, “so that the farmer can take care of what it is his job to be there: to produce”. “When you don’t provide these conditions, you’re not carrying out agrarian reform, you’re sharing land”, he says.

The outsourcing of degrees is also questioned by the researcher. He states that INCRA, in a centralized way, should identify unproductive lands and carry out their expropriation, “but the government is soft-hearted”. With outsourcing, what happens, according to him, is the provision of precarious technical assistance that does not follow the interests and determinations provided for in the Constitution.

Luca also explains that the Constitution provides that land in Brazil must have a social function. Agrarian reform is carried out in cases where these lands do not serve this use and are unproductive. The researcher says that there are occupation processes that have been unresolved for more than 30 years.