Brazil’s small farmers offer lessons to India
“Once, it was a rodeo day here and my son asked for money to go. But I didn’t have the money and told him to sell our farm’s bananas on the road instead. So, he took 50 bunches of bananas and sold them all in a few hours. Soon I started a banana business. The sales enabled me to expand my business to packed lunches for truckers. Over time, with the help of my family, the road administration, and my own investments, I started receiving invitations to make meals for college students and travelers.”
Angela, small-holder farmer and entrepreneur, São Paolo, Brazil.
Angela told us her story one afternoon as we ate the delicious lunch she had prepared for us at her rather humble roadside eatery in rural São Paulo, Brazil.
Her story was not only touching but also summed up the importance of entrepreneurial foresight and the power that collaboration holds in opening new doors for poor farming communities.
India and Brazil have much in common. Both have smallholder farmers - called family farmers
in Brazil - (although these farmers make up a much smaller proportion of Brazil’s overall farming community and have a different landholding structure).
Yet Brazil, like many other Latin American countries, has been able to promote commercial agriculture and raise farmers’ incomes by creating collectives, comprised mainly of family farmers.
Even though family farmers represent a small slice of Brazil’s cooperatives, the impact of their collectives is considerable.
Often referred to as the “breadbasket of the world”, half of Brazil’s food comes from its 1,500 plus agricultural co-operatives, which employ more than 360,000 people.
The productivity of Brazil’s agriculture is evident.
With only 15% of Brazil’s population living in rural areas, more than 20% of its GDP comes from the agriculture sector.
In India, on the other hand, 66% of the people live in rural areas while just 15% of GDP comes from agriculture.
Brazil’s success in making agriculture more market-oriented and raising farmer incomes holds many lessons for India.
For many years now, India has recorded a surplus in most critical agricultural commodities.
Yet, farmers’ incomes continue to be subdued.
To help farmers earn more from the land and move onto a higher trajectory of growth, India has gradually shifted its policy focus to linking farmers to markets, as well as enabling them to diversify their production and add value to their produce.
So how do Brazil’s farmer collectives work?
