With Lula and Dilma, the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (Pronaf) was expanded and made simplified. Credit jumped from R$ 2.2 billion (2002-2003) to R$ 24.1 billion in the 2014-2015 season. Besides being small in size, Pronaf previously had been limited to a small number of beneficiaries, mostly located in the South. Only about 20% of farmers had access. Today, the program is available in 5,454 municipalities, with expansion of the groups benefited (women, youths, small-scale fishing, extractivists), newly financed activities (agroforestry, agro-industrial, cooperatives) and interest rates below inflation levels. Since 2002, more than 1 million families have acquired rural credit through the program. Under Lula and Dilma, Pronaf in fact fulfills the mission actually imprinted in its name: strengthening of family farming.
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In 2008, in response to the world economic crisis, the Lula Government introduced a line of credit earmarked specifically to finance the infrastructure and increase the productivity of family farming.
The Dilma Government continued and extended this policy and in 5 years, 400,000 families received a total of R$ 15.5 billion in credit for the purchase of tractors, transport vehicle, harvesters, refrigerated units for milk and investments in projects for the improvement and recovery of the land, genetic improvements and irrigation. Around 2300 jobs (34% of the labor force in the tractor industry were employed thanks to the “More Foods” program that also encouraged manufacturers to increase their domestic content in order to qualify for the program, generating even more jobs in the sector.