Brazilian minister of Agriculture condemns National Program for Pesticide Reduction

By the judgment of Brazil's Agriculture Minister Kátia Abreu, the National Program for Pesticide Reduction “would be the death sentence of Brazilian agriculture”. The statement was done during an interview on Tuesday (11.24) when the Program of Agricultural Defense on Border Areas was launched.

The minister sustained that the imposed reduction of the use of pesticide in the field would leave Brazil's farm business in a very delicate position. In her vision, Brazil assumed a position of leadership in the agricultural sector exactly because it uses pesticide correctly.

Built in a partnership between the Ministry of Agrarian Development and civil society organization, the program was ended nearly a year ago as part of the National Policy of Agroecology and Organic Production. Last August, President Dilma Rousseff promised to confirm the official launch of the program early on November – which did not happen so far.

Last week, over 150 Brazilian entities signed a manifesto requesting the government that implements the initiative “ASAP”. Among its supporters are labor unions, NGOs, workers confederations and social movements aligned to parties of the political left.