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Brazil Launches 2012-13 Agriculture and Livestock Plan

In June, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Mendes Ribeiro Filho launched a new Agriculture and Livestock Plan for Brazil. It will include R$ 115.2 billion (US$ 55.5 billion) in federal government investments in Brazil's agriculture business crop over the 2012-2013 season. This is the highest amount of resources ever invested in this sector.

Brazil will use US$ 41.9 billion to finance the cost and marketing of crops and US$ 13.6 billion will support investment programs. The new plan also boosts the previous crop credit by 7.5% and reduces the controlled annual interest rate from 6.75% to 5.5%.

Expanding rural insurance

In the new plan, the federal government will increase subsidies to rural insurance premiums by 5.5% for 2012, totaling US$ 128.6 million. With this measure, government projects to ensure more than 6 million hectares, equivalent to US$ 3.9 billion will cover more than 60,000 contracted insurance policies. In 2013, an additional US$ 64.1 million will guarantee the amount of US$ 192.7 million insured to medium-scale producers.

The government is also committed to supporting the marketing of agricultural products to ensure the selling price is determined based on estimates of the variable cost. For products backed by federal government acquisitions, the plan calls for increasing the current minimum prices for various products, regionally and nationally.

Benefits among ag sectors

For cattle for beef and dairy the 2012-13 plan renews a credit line for the purchase of breeding cattle and buffaloes.

The plan also created a credit line for retaining pork breeding animals.

It also opens a credit line for the acquisition of breeding sheep and goats.