By Kellen Severo*
The ministers appointed by President Lula made varied declarations in the first weeks of the government.
In our focus are the speeches of the Ministers of Agriculture, Agrarian Development, Environment, Indigenous Peoples and Economy.
Among the recurring themes, the environmental issue, rural credit and the use of agrochemicals.
On the environmental issue, we observed several mentions with the aim of inhibiting deforestation, recovering degraded pasture areas and offering lower interest rates to producers with proven social and environmental practices.
The BMJ consultancy hopes that there will be progress in the proposals that will make environmental licensing more rigid, and this could happen at the sublegal level, that is, through changes in regulations, and not via laws.
The environmental discourse can open doors in the international arena, especially facilitating the implementation of trade agreements, such as the Mercosur-European Union, which suffered barriers from European leaders in the Bolsonaro administration.
In the area of rural credit, there are expectations of changes to serve family producers.
There is still a lack of information on what structural changes could be made in the first 100 days to move forward in this regard.
In the case of the regulatory agenda, the use of agricultural pesticides is at the center of the debate and has been addressed by different ministers, from Agriculture to Native Peoples.
According to the CEO of BMJ, Wagner Parente, there is a debate about barriers to more advanced products, which could mean a delay in the approval of new molecules and the modernization of pesticides used in tropical agriculture.
I agree with several of the points raised by Parente, especially the challenges linked to the modernization of agrochemicals and the possibility of limitations on environmental licensing.
In addition, I also hope that there will be positive effects from the adoption of the environmental discourse in the foreign market, with the possibility of more agreements being signed.
BELOW IS AN EXCERPT FROM OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE CEO OF BMJ, WAGNER PARENTE:
In the face of the first signs given by Lula’s ministers, what changes for agro?
I have the impression that there are at least three common aspects in the speeches of the new ministers. The first is in relation to the international image.
This is very much in line with what [Agriculture Minister Carlos] Fávaro brought and with what Marina [Silva, Environment Minister] brought, especially the issue of deforestation, which can have commercial impacts.
Perhaps the most urgent cited is the resumption of the internalization of the Mercosur and European Union agreement, which was discussed for more than 20 years and finally signed in the first year of the Bolsonaro government, but until today it has not been internalized due to Bolsonaro’s complicated relationship with the main leaders of the European Union and the domestic European agricultural lobby.
So, maybe we can move forward in this international agenda, not only with the EU but also with other agreements that may be of interest to agribusiness, this is the good part that we can pay attention to, the opening of new negotiations, with markets that are of interest to agro, such as the negotiation of an agreement with South Korea.
Regarding the part that we should be more careful with, perhaps it is the regulatory issue in relation to the use of agricultural pesticides.
We know how necessary it is to use pesticides in a tropical climate like ours, but perhaps there is still some trace of prejudice, of backward thinking about the use of more advanced agrochemicals than those we used in the past.
This renewal needs to be facilitated, not hindered. Perhaps, sitting in the chair, the new government will understand this, and having someone who knows about agriculture, like Carlos Fávaro, facilitates this dialogue.
The third point is perhaps related to structure and linked to the financing of agribusiness. This was brought up by the Minister [of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo] Teixeira on rural credit for small producers, it is not bad news that family farming cannot be sustained without credit, but other producers will not be able to live without it either. financing structure created over the years.
It is important that it be preserved, even in a troubled fiscal scenario. These three aspects were brought up at the beginning of the government and we have to carefully observe how they will behave in more specific situations.
Minister Carlos Fávaro, in his inauguration, also mentioned the importance of Embrapa. In the past, Embrapa was used as a form of diplomatic rapprochement, it was used in cooperation agreements in Africa, with Angola, Mozambique and other countries with which Brazil was interested in increasing diplomacy.
In a specific context in Lula’s first term, for a seat on the [UN] Security Council, but this could perhaps be used again, including with Venezuela, which in the past had a cooperation agreement with Embrapa.
It remains to be seen whether this pragmatism will be used in the company’s expertise.
Another thing is the structure of the ministry, this move by Conab into the ministry controlled by Teixeira is a clear influence of Gleisi Hoffmann.
The president of Conab is Edegar Preto, which shows a great influence of the PT and of Gleisi more precisely in the definition of these names.
In the past, we had a perspective that Neri Geller could take over Conab in a shared management between Fávaro and Teixeira.
That is not what happened. Out there, we have some indications that we may have problems and miss opportunities.
Sônia Guajajara, Minister of Indigenous Peoples, has already stated that she intends to expand indigenous lands with the demarcation of 13 areas in the first hundred days of government. What’s your assessment?
The definition of an area indicates placing a series of restrictions on production, and this needs to be evaluated very carefully.
It is a fact that the biggest problem with Brazilian production is not the area, but we need to know where these demarcated areas will be.
If you look at the map of Brazilian agricultural production and where these 13 demarcated areas will be, there may be an impact.
To see how much this will advance in soybean area and the impact of this, for the time being we do not have this information.
Another fact that she brought about the use of agrochemicals, maybe there is still some confusion about what is the use of agrochemicals that are more advanced.
We heard the public debate positing the creation of barriers to more advanced products as positive, the opposite should be the case.
As science advances, you create pesticides that are less harmful to the environment and human beings, so there should be a slightly different view.
And perhaps, with these new ministers and Sônia Guajajara understanding these aspects, the role of the private sector will be important so that these confusions do not jeopardize the government’s decision-making process.
What are the positive and most worrying agendas for these 100 days in office?
I believe that Conab’s management is something to look at with caution, in my opinion it would have been better to have it in the Ministry of Agriculture, under the management of Carlos Fávaro, but that’s okay, the signal that there will be no price regulation is quite healthy.
I think that, from the outset, we need to observe this regulatory issue with caution, perhaps the main issue is that of pesticides, but there is a lot going on in Congress that is not a direct decision of the federal government, but that can have influence. An example is self-control, which we have already seen happen.
The demarcation of indigenous lands, which is in the Federal Supreme Court, is also not something directly impacted by the Lula government, but it has influence.
Do you see that the new government intends to change some environmental law?
The Ibama definitions we had… Former congressman [Rodrigo] Agostinho should take over, he is someone linked to the environmental agenda and knows the environmental legislation.
He was even the author of some proposals to make licensing more rigid, which could impact the sublegal scope, which does not need legal changes, but needs regulation changes.
Also in this scope of the federal government, making the legislation more rigid in relation to licensing is something that we should expect.
Do you agree that Lula was at odds with the sector by linking a “malicious agro” with acts of vandalism in Brasília?
I agree. There is a perception in the new government that agro is a diverse sector.
As the size of the sector is immense, there are several segments, and this Manichaeism, separating the good agro from the bad, is a tendency of this new government and a prejudice that needs to be broken.
There were, yes, several rural producers who were close to the Bolsonaro government, but not all Bolsonaro supporters financed acts or participated in the demonstration.
Whoever does anything illegal will have to be punished, be it a rural producer, industrial producer, small producer or even if he is not a producer.
And maybe making this direct link in a speech is premature, also because the investigations have just started and this will have to be evaluated over time.
Do you see the glass more full or empty for the agro?
From a positive point of view, it seems to me that the government is aware of the importance of making a strong agro from the point of view of exports, even to generate internal currency to have strength in the trade balance, which affects the exchange rate and indirectly inflation and interest rates.
I think there is a perception that Brazil depends on a strong agro, regardless of ideological bias. It’s expected a strong market opening work and image improvement.
But some measures of these 15 days of government are worrying.
For example, the Lula government did away with the area within the Itamaraty that took care of agribusiness.
There, it is a negative signal, the structure was created in Bolsonaro, but it served to support the opening of the market.
In practice, I hope that this structure taken from Itamaraty will be placed at Apex [Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments] or elsewhere to support this international agenda.
We hope that prejudices will decrease over time and that we will have a good relationship with this government.
We cannot assume that everything is going to be bad, we need to have a little goodwill for a good relationship with all government bodies created.
*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Jovem Pan.
With information from Jovem Pan