Uma análise do PRONAF: características e evolução no município de Nossa Senhora do Socorro/SE

Abstract

The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF) was developed in 1996, with the aim of providing family farming with incentives to achieve regional development. This work aims to analyze PRONAF in the municipality of Nossa Senhora do Socorro, located in the metropolitan region of Aracaju, in the east of the State of Sergipe, investigating the characteristics and evolution of the program. The object of study shows that the municipality in question, despite being in the metropolitan region, the presence of family farming is significant and the rural population is quite impoverished, which makes PRONAF relevant for the municipality, considering that one of the main objectives of the program is the reduction of rural poverty. As far as this work is concerned, this research is described as descriptive, because it seeks to describe the relevant role of PRONAF as a public policy. The methodological procedures were bibliographic research and descriptive statistics. The technique used is quantitative in nature, based on statistical surveys from the Central Bank of Brazil's yearbook and the rural credit data matrix, in order to examine the volume and evolution of PRONAF contracts. The period analyzed between 2013 and 2023 was delimited by the provision of data from the Central Bank of Brazil on rural credit destined to PRONAF in the municipalities. As for the Agricultural Census data, the 2006 and 2017 censuses, the most recent available, were used. The two series provide the guarantee of compliance between analyses. The main finding of the research is that despite the public policy being relevant on the national scene, in the municipality of Nossa Senhora do Socorro, in the period between 2013 and 2023, there was a very sharp reduction of 95.65% in the number of contracts executed and a reduction of 66.70% in the volume of resources made available. The concentration of credit available for livestock farming and the predominance of PRONAF-B microcredit demonstrates that the program has mainly served smaller farmers with greater social vulnerability. However, the drastic reduction in hiring in recent years raises questions about the effectiveness of the program in promoting the development of family farming in Nossa Senhora do Socorro.