Brazil

Brazil is making progress towards achieving the targets of the World Food Summit and the Millennium Development Goals. The latest data available (2005-2007) show that six percent of the population are malnourished, having fallen from ten percent in 1995. The largest number of food insecure are found in the rural northeast of the country, where the country’s heaviest concentration of indigenous people is also found. On average, improvements in both life expectancy and child mortality have been recorded since 2003, when Brazil embarked on its Zero Hunger Programme.

Video: FAO in Brazil

FAO's main in-country programmes

Special Programme for Food Security
FAO has been assisting Brazil in the field of food security since 2002 when the incoming Government sought FAO assistance in operationalizing its Zero Hunger Programme. The programme targets 84 million beneficiaries. Three projects approved in January 2003 were the foundation of the Special Programme for Food Security in Brazil: 

• assisting the initial implementation of Zero Hunger; 
• adjustment of internationally financed projects to support Zero Hunger; and 
• capacity-building approaches to improving the food security of poor rural people in the northeast of the country.

The programme supports: 

• improved productivity among small farmers, including agrarian reform beneficiaries; and 
• an expanded set of social safety net programmes for improving poor people's access to food.

National Programme for Food Security
Following the positive experiences of the projects implemented under the Special Programme umbrella, a unilateral trust fund project of about US$5 million was signed in December 2003. The main objectives were to:

• support the government in the design of a policy paper on food security for 2004-2007;
• improve institutional coordination in the implementation of Zero Hunger;
• set up an efficient monitoring system of Zero Hunger; and 
• scale up the positive results obtained under the earlier projects.

FAO also assisted the Ministry of Education in the development of the school garden programme, which has shown encouraging results. In August 2006 an FAO-led Zero Hunger stock-taking mission took place and the findings were discussed in a teleconference with representatives of six other Latin American countries.

EMPRES animal health component
The Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) focuses mainly on livestock diseases in Brazil. Brazil has never reported highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). While HPAI has not affected the South American continent yet, FAO has provided support in terms of preparedness through three global and regional projects.

EMPRES collaborates with the Pan American Foot and Mouth Disease Centre in its regional mandate for foot-and-mouth disease eradication. In 2008, an FAO expert worked six months in Brazil to strengthen a joint plan for eradication of the disease.

The New World Screwworm is a significant animal disease in South America, causing estimated losses of nearly US$3.6 million each year. Eradication efforts in Brazil are supported by the International Development Bank, Mexico, and the United States Commission for the New World Screwworm Eradication. FAO provides technical support. In January 2009 a pilot test was launched on the international border of Brazil and Uruguay. The aim was to demonstrate the technical and logistical procedures of Sterile Insect Technique operations for possible future regional programmes.

FAO provided support for the preparation of a regional animal health programme concluded in December 2008. Implementation is supported by each country at national level.

last updated: 30 June 2011