President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Thursday (15th) that rationality is needed with agricultural and environmental policies and that the agribusiness sector’s problem with the current government is ideological and not management. Lula gave an interview this morning to radio stations in the state of Goiás. According to the president, he does not work to please certain sectors, but to create working conditions for all Brazilians, including agribusiness. Lula cited that the sector was greatly benefited in his previous governments, with resources and credit conditions. “I am aware of what we did, I am aware that their problem with us is ideological, it is not a problem of too much money in the Safra Plan. We are going to make a good Crop Plan because we want Brazilian agriculture to continue producing, to continue planting more and more so that we can continue to export more and more”, said Lula. “What is at stake is for us to recover the productive capacity of this country and increase this productive capacity without deforestation or burning in the Amazon”, he added. According to the president, it is necessary to recover the 30 million hectares of degraded land to “double our agricultural production”. He demanded rationality from the sector so that the country’s international policy is not harmed. Lula recalled that yesterday (14) the French parliament vetoed the Mercosur-European Union (EU) agreement because it wants a change in Brazilian behavior with regard to agriculture. Approved in 2019, after 20 years of negotiations, the Mercosur-EU agreement needs to be ratified by the parliaments of all countries in both blocs to enter into force. A procedure involving 31 countries. “We need to be aware of the rationality that must prevail in our international policy. Yesterday, the French parliament said it will not vote on the Mercosur-European Union agreement because of the amount of poison used in Brazilian agricultural products. It is important for us to take into account that being rational, taking care of good quality agriculture is a competitive need for Brazil for China and for France, for the United States and for Germany and that is how I want to treat agribusiness”, said Lula. He also highlighted that the government’s care also involves small rural producers who produce food that goes straight to the table, citing the establishment of a minimum price policy for production. “These people also have to be treated with a lot of respect, because if one of the agribusinesses has an extraordinary value to produce commodities for us to export, the other has an extraordinary courage to plant what we are going to eat”, he said. Environment For the president, the serious rural producer has responsibility with the environment. “A person who makes a living from production and exports knows that it will be detrimental to their business if we burn in fires, enter lands that cannot be entered and pollute rivers that we cannot pollute. Every smart farmer and every farmer with common sense knows that environmental preservation is an added value for the products we are producing to export, “he said. Lula also said that the government will be “very hard” in inspecting and punishing people who commit environmental crimes and, on the other hand, will deal decently with those who are complying with the law, “those who know that preservation is an added value in products we make in this country”.
Agência Brasil
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