07/22/2023 – 7:37 pm
The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) opened this Saturday (22), in the municipality of São Mateus (ES), the 1st Capixaba Agrarian Reform Coffee Party, to celebrate the coffee harvest produced in the agrarian reform areas of Espírito Santo.
The festivity took place in the rural settlement Vale da Vitória. The program throughout Saturday included an agrarian reform product fair (in natura, industrialized products and handicrafts); food space; cultural activities; and inauguration of the new facilities of the Cooperative for the Improvement, Marketing and Provision of Services for Settled Farmers (Coopterra), which currently has around 250 cooperative families.
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In an interview with Brazil Agency, the National Coordinator of Production, Cooperation and Environment of the MST, Daniel Mâncio, says he understands that the festivity has a national scope. Daniel Mâncio explains that coffee production in agrarian reform settlements is organized by the MST in six states.
“The landless movement seeks to organize priority production chains, including coffee, as a way of making qualitative leaps, not only in the sphere of production, but in agro-industrialization and commercialization, articulating processes from end to end of the chain, thus adding value, generating income and work and, therefore, we contribute in a very important way from an organizational point of view.”
visits
The event recorded the presence of MST settlers and campers in that state, in addition to the MST national coordinator, João Pedro Stédile, and the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA), Paulo Teixeira.
Upon learning about the production of settled families, Minister Paulo Teixeira reinforced the importance of the cooperative’s administration being entirely carried out by settled families. “Today, I saw here an important experience in the production and cooperative system of coffee and pepper. A system that worked, demonstrating the role of agrarian reform and cooperation”.
Public policy
The event also had debates and political act. João Pedro Stédile, from the national coordination of the MST, highlighted the importance of organizing rural workers in Espírito Santo. “Even in a micro way, here in Espírito Santo, we have revealed a picture of the national class struggle, especially in the field of agriculture”. Stédile also called for advances in agrarian reform policies. “We have to recover a credit policy for agroindustries, just as we have to resume Pronera [Programa Nacional de Educação na Reforma Agrária]. For this, we will be attentive to the necessary struggles in defense of the development of our settlements”.
A Brazil Agency, the coordinator of the MST, Daniel Mâncio, listed other public policies considered fundamental to the development of the Brazilian countryside and which were discussed with Minister Paulo Teixeira. Among them: credit policies for funding and stimulus to production in agrarian reform settlements, based on the new Safra Plan. The MST also focused on other public policies for agro-industrialization, development and adding value to production. Finally, Daniel Mâncio defended institutional marketing policies, via the National Supply Company (Conab), Food Acquisition Program (PAA); by the formation of inventories and also by institutional purchases by the federal government. “With these policies, it is possible to establish a new relationship for organizing the production and distribution of food for Brazilian society. In addition, technical assistance, as a program that encourages, stimulates, organizes and qualifies coffee production as well”.
agrarian reform cafe
The MST estimates that, annually, the areas of the movement in Espírito Santo harvest around 150,000 bags of grain, involving 450 producing families, most of which benefit from Cooperativa Coopterra.
According to the movement, coffee cultivation has been one of the main productive chains in consolidation in the region, especially conilon coffee.
Today, Espírito Santo is the largest producer of conilon coffee in Brazil, responsible for between 75% and 78% of national production.
The settlers of the agrarian reform of São Mateus (ES) still stand out for the production of black pepper.
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