Programa Rural

Programa Rural Sustentável

Contributing to a low-carbon transition in Brazilian agriculture

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The Sustainable Rural Program contributes to a transition in agriculture in Brazil’s main biomes. We seek to restore deforested and degraded lands on small and medium-sized properties to improve productivity. This is possible through the use of low-carbon agricultural production practices and social technologies, while avoiding illegal deforestation and pressure to expand new productive areas. There are 62.3 million euros allocated to this great objective. We show, in practice, that it is possible to do more and better with the area already used by traditional agriculture.

We are present in 21% of the Brazilian territory, in an area of 1.7 million km², operating in 252 municipalities. For comparison purposes, this coverage corresponds to the sum of the extension of countries such as Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and Belgium.

BENEFITS OF LOW CARBON FARMING

Agriculture is understood as the combination of agriculture and livestock. In addition to traditional practices, several technologies can be implemented to increase soil productivity and resilience, while reducing pressure to expand new areas, combating illegal deforestation and living in harmonious coexistence with the territory.

An effective transition to sustainable agriculture and livestock farming is possible!

The Sustainable Rural Program contributes to boosting agricultural production through sustainable means. It enables a significant increase in the productive area of critical ecosystems, such as the Amazon, as they are effectively protected and restored when they integrate sustainable management practices to reduce emissions, build climate resilience and combat poverty in rural areas.

And Brazilian agriculture has been taking several actions to reduce environmental impact, such as adopting new technologies and management alternatives or integrating different systems in the same area. In this context, Sustainable Rural presents itself as an instrument to protect biodiversity and boost positive results in nature, as it seeks to:

Protect, restore and manage natural resources sustainably to increase the resilience of ecosystems and the services they provide.

Act in accordance with the productive vocation of each territory and reduce the causes of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.

Enhance the value of nature and its use in a sustainable way, generating institutional and decision-making changes by actors of change at local level, subnational governments, the financial system, businesses and individuals.

HOW WE ACT

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

Conserve natural biodiversity resources and avoid illegal deforestation by increasing productivity and profitability in the sustainable use of land, reducing poverty in rural areas.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

People

Increase the income of rural producers;
Improve access to incentives for sustainable development.

Nature and use of land

Leverage the use of sustainable production systems, with gains in biodiversity and conservation of natural resources;
Promote the maintenance of ecosystem services and the conservation of biodiversity through actions to restore degraded landscapes;
Promote the training of rural producers to consolidate low-carbon agriculture.

Climate

Transform traditional production methods to a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector to climate change;
Reduce GHG emissions through the restoration of anthropic areas and environmental protection.

LOW CARBON EMISSION TECHNOLOGIES

The Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration systems (ILPF), understood as Agroforestry Systems (SAFs), and the Recovery of Degraded Pastures (RPD) are production strategies. The first integrates different agricultural, livestock and forestry activities in the same area, in intercropped cultivation, in succession or in rotation, seeking synergistic effects between its components, considering environmental suitability and economic viability. RPD consists of techniques that promote the recovery of the productive capacity of degraded pastures, providing an increase in the productivity of forage species.

INTEGRATED SYSTEMS improve livestock farming, farming and keep the forest standing.
RECOVERY OF DEGRADED AREAS restores soil cover and the vigor of forage plants existing in the pasture impact

SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES

They are reapplicable products, techniques or methodologies, developed in interaction with communities and that represent effective solutions for social transformation on a large scale.

We recognize the Caatinga as an open-air laboratory that creates, systematizes and promotes exchanges between the knowledge of rural producers and the experience of social organizations in dialogue with technical and scientific knowledge developed in the region.

Goals for phase II

PRS – Caatinga

1,500 rural producers mobilized
600 hectares of sustainable management
200 hectares of preserved area in private property
+ 15% improvement in family income
+120 trained ATER professionals
200 hectares of restored area
20 million tons of CO2 avoided
Adoption of innovative social technologies in energy and water
Publication of the collection Cadernos do PRS Caatinga, with research results on environmental and social conditions and the impact of low-carbon technologies for their restoration and conservation;
In partnership with UNIVASF, it promotes a lato sensu course in low-carbon agricultural technologies, with 600 enrollees, aimed at qualifying ATER services;
Performs Land Use and Hydrography mapping using high-resolution satellite images;
Promotes the strengthening of various stakeholder networks, including the formation of a Territorial Technical Committee that brings together representatives from different sectors operating in the Caatinga.

PRS – Cerrado

+ than 16 thousand people benefited
4,500 rural producers trained
1,500 rural producers with access to improved credit
300 thousand hectares implemented with low carbon emission technologies
3 thousand Multiplier Units supported
170 Demonstration Units identified
20 socio-productive organizations strengthened
33 supported research
Professional Master’s Degree in partnership with the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) in ABC
Distance Learning Course in partnership with Canal Futura, from the Roberto Marinho Foundation
Use of innovative financial instruments in Green Finance, to leverage rural credit, carbon credits and with the potential to be replicated in other biomes

Attendance at mobilization training actions

9 thousand rural producers
7,800 young people
1,750 ATER professionals

PRS – Amazônia (extensão)

400 thousand tons of GHG emissions mitigated by avoided deforestation
15% increase in annual gross family income
10% increase in productivity
600 producer/extractivist families adopting sustainable production practices

Results achieved in Phase I

Amazônia

Around R$24 million reais disbursed directly to rural producers
1,559 Multiplier Units supported
17,922 participants in training actions
3 face-to-face training sessions carried out with Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Agents (ATECs)
133 Demonstration Units

Mata Atlântica

More than R$19 million reais disbursed directly to rural producers
1,984 Multiplier Units supported
22,677 participants in training actions
4 face-to-face training sessions carried out with ATECs
218 Demonstration Units

WHERE WE ACT

Click on the map to learn more about biomes and how we act in them!

WHO WE ARE

We are financed by Technical Cooperation approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with resources from the United Kingdom Government’s International Climate Financing, with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) as the institutional beneficiary. We operate in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes, run and managed by the Brazilian Institute for Development and Sustainability (IABS), and in the Caatinga biome, run and managed by the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (FBDS). In the first phase of the Program, we developed work in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes.

In a broader context, the Program dialogues directly with major structuring Brazilian public policies, with emphasis on the sectoral Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change and Low Carbon Emissions in Agriculture with a view to Sustainable Development, ABC+, and as a sectoral instrument for compliance with the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Action in biomes is also connected with specific public policies for the respective territories. Two biomes stand out: in the Caatinga, the PRS dialogues with AgroNordeste; In the Amazon, the PRS leverages the promotion of productive landscapes with extractivism (wild collection) and low-carbon agricultural methods, with the aim of ensuring environmental, social and economic resilience, while reducing the need for vegetation conversion native, consequently reducing illegal deforestation and soil degradation in the Amazon. The PRS – Amazônia, by intervening in three municipalities (Lábrea, São Félix do Xingú and Altamira), which are also priority municipalities of the National Council for the Legal Amazon, headed by the Vice-President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão.

Furthermore, we dialogue directly with the Águas do Agro policy, which promotes sustainable economic development in rural areas through the adoption of soil and water conservation measures and practices, with efficient management of natural resources. The focus of this policy is on micro river basins and the strengthening of sustainable technologies for water and soil use.

Tangentially, we can mention the dialogue between Sustainable Rural and the National Soil Survey and Interpretation Program in Brazil (PronaSolos). After all, Rural reaches such a large territory and locations of such comprehensive sizes, soil characteristics and biodiversity, that the connection with PronaSolos can deepen even further. There are also efforts by the Brazilian government to build the PronaSolos Platform, which will gather information on Brazilian soil. The data can be accessed by researchers, rural producers and the general population, free of charge.