The director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, signed this Thursday, June 21, during the Rio+20, a R$ 3.5 million agreement with the Minister of Agrarian Development (MDA), Pepe Vargas. The signing took place in the Socio-Environmental Arena, a side-event of the UN conference.

The project’s objective is to contribute to sustainable rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean, increasing the capacity of countries and civil society in developing participative public policies to support peasant family agriculture.

"To strengthen the dialogue with civil society is very important to find the necessary consensus to promote rural development and the fight against hunger," said FAO’s Director-General, José Graziano da Silva.

The environment

Last Wednesday, June 20, Mr. Graziano also signed a technical cooperation agreement in the amount of R$ 300.000 with the Minister of Environment, Izabella Teixeira.

The project envisages the strengthening of agro-environmental policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. The aim is to promote dialogue and the exchange of national experiences in public policies in the area.
To Mr. Graziano, this is the first step to implement what the FAO achieved at Rio +20. "It's a fantastic deal sponsored by the Brazilian government in which we are committed to preserving the forests by ending poverty and social exclusion," he explains.

"We are creating conditions to use all those good practices of environmental preservation to strengthen family farms, indigenous people and rubber tappers in the Amazon region and in Latin America in general."

To Marco Farani, director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (Agência Brasileira de Cooperação - ABC), the signing of the agreement signifies the commitment of the Brazilian government with Mr. Graziano’s management of the FAO. "ABC widely supports the Brazilian director in this organization, which is the main agency in the areas of food and agriculture. This is a project in a series of projects that we are approving in which ministries of the Brazilian Government transfer funds to FAO for the implementation and international cooperation based on the Brazilian experience," he says.

The idea is that the agreement would be a tool for reducing rural poverty and food insecurity in the region.