Brasilia, March 8, 2024 - Family farmer Rita de Cássia Alves has been president of the AgroVerde Cooperative, located in Guapimirim, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, since 2021. In her organization, public procurement programmes play a fundamental role in the work that members develop, focusing on the entire agricultural production chain, promoting quality of life, and respecting the environment.

As the granddaughter of farmers, Rita de Cássia Alves, 51 years old and mother of two children, has been involved in agriculture since she was young. For the past eight years, she has been exclusively dedicated to fieldwork, currently producing passion fruit, cassava, bananas, and has also begun investing in poultry farming for chicken egg production.

In her view, rural women play a very important role in family farming, as well as in the multiple tasks they perform throughout the day. "There are many women alone taking care of their children and working in the fields, tending to the crops and the house," she says.

As a rural entrepreneur, Rita de Cássia identified the opportunity to implement an agribusiness to add even more value and expand the income possibilities for herself and other cooperative members. "We encourage women to plant beans, then we package and deliver them for the school feeding programme," explains the president of AgroVerde, adding that this is the first agribusiness in the state of Rio de Janeiro to produce and process beans locally.

Brazilian National School Feeding Programme: more income for farming families

Rita de Cássia explains that one of the greatest challenges for family farming and for cooperatives and associations in the sector is ensuring stable and sustainable income. In this sense, two Brazilian public policies have been crucial: the Food Acquisition Programme (PAA, for its Portuguese acronym) and the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE, for its Portuguese acronym), which provide not only a stable source of income for her family and other cooperative members but also enable opportunities for growth and financial sustainability.

According to the farmer, the PAA has positively impacted AgroVerde's daily life as a programme that purchases food produced by family farming and distributes it to people facing food and nutritional insecurity, as well as those served by social assistance networks, hospitals, prisons, universities, philanthropic schools, among others.

In Brazil, since 2009, it has been established by law that at least 30% of the federal funds allocated to the PNAE by the National Fund for the Educational Development (FNDE) must be invested in the direct purchase of products from family farming for school meals.

The demand stability generated by the PNAE encourages increased diversified product production. "This gives us the possibility to partner with other cooperatives and private institutions," she says. For Rita, these public policies have allowed the consolidation of the cooperative's relationship with the producers' families. Additionally, the engagement of farmers has also contributed to encouraging production diversification and local development. "The cooperative strengthens with this economic security, enabling us to plan and implement improvements in infrastructure and management," says the leader.

For the farmer, public procurement policies favor the improvement of socio-environmental practices in the cooperative, facilitating access to resources from other government programmes, thus expanding opportunities for development and strengthening of local family farming.

According to Rita, the cooperative's participation in these public policies has provided her and all cooperative members with an additional source of income that is reinvested in product diversification and investments, increasing the supply of fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens. "This allowed the improvement of the cooperative's management and logistics due to increased demand, opening the possibility of achieving economic stability for our families."

Successful experience

The successful experience of Rita de Cássia and other members of AgroVerde was presented in 2023 to an international delegation from the Dominican Republic, composed of managers and other professionals involved in the implementation of the school feeding programme in that country, who visited the cooperative facilities in Rio de Janeiro.

The mission was promoted by the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Programme on school feeding, jointly carried out by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE), the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE/MEC), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). One of the actions of this cooperation is to promote the exchange of experiences and best practices among countries, including initiatives developed within the Brazilian school feeding policy, which serves as a reference for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The coordinator of the project Regional Agenda for Sustainable School Feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean, Najla Veloso, emphasizes the importance of policies that enable family farmers, like Rita de Cássia, to have a guaranteed market for the commercialization of their production, contributing to better income for their families. "Furthermore, these policies also contribute to improving, planning, and ensuring production increasingly committed to nutrition and the environment, for the benefit of improving the quality of life for everyone," Najla evaluates, adding: "The coordinated role that women have been playing in productive activities indicates a correct path in the struggle for equity in treatment and opportunities in social life."