Photo: Agencia Brasil

By: Radio Habana Cuba

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is promoting the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty within the Group of 20. In his own country, he is also encouraging the distribution of land to increase food production.

As well as establishing a platform for sharing experiences, which has attracted the participation of dozens of countries, the former trade union leader is also taking action at home by accelerating the distribution of land for agrarian reform.

Aimed at small and family farmers, this policy is showing progress, although it took time to gain momentum due to the dismantling of state agencies during the presidency of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

According to the Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development, the government registered approximately 50,000 families in 2023 and over 74,000 in 2024, with the aim of reaching 300,000 by the end of Lula's term in 2026.

Recently, the Brazilian leader handed over over 10 thousand hectares of land to farming families in the southern state of Paraná, emphasising the importance of agrarian reform.

The authorities of this South American nation are tackling food insecurity by periodically allocating land to small-scale producers, with a particular focus on family farming.

Since taking office, the President has advocated avoiding conflict and death in rural areas. To this end, he has instructed the registration of land and the creation of settlements.

The National Institute of Colonisation and Agrarian Reform, which was dismantled by Bolsonaro, is operating differently and is organising the allocation of plots to members of the Landless Movement.

The organisation supports what it calls the 'democratisation of the countryside' and the sustainable supply of food.

However, it has not been easy to implement these plans, as conservative groups harass the Landless and reject agrarian reform while supporting the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few.

The 2017 Agricultural Census revealed that approximately one percent of landowners in Brazil controlled nearly half of the country's rural area.

In light of this, the Lula government is encouraging visits to productive areas in the countryside and drafting expropriation decrees as part of the 'People's Land' programme.

Despite the obstacles, manoeuvres, adverse media campaigns and the nefarious legacy of Bolsonarism, Brazil is attempting to address the long-standing demands of popular movements.