Oil palm cultivation in Pará has helped improve the lives of small producers in the state, including Manoel do Carmo, a family farmer from Tomé-Açú, in the northeast of the state. He already worked with the production of black pepper, cocoa and cupuaçu and since 2014 he started to grow oil palm. He says that before the oil palm, the family went through a lot of difficulty.
"We had to borrow money. From oil palm I was able to improve the quality of life of my family, raise my six children and improve my housing. Today, everyone who plants oil palm has their own car... So, life has improved", says the family farmer, who grows oil palm on 10 hectares, which corresponds to half of the cultivated area of his property.
This July 25th is International Family Farming Day and Manoel is one of the 400 farmers who are part of the Family Farming Program at Grupo BBF ( Brasil BioFuels). José de Matos also participates in the program and has experienced the same difficulties. "It's through the BBF that we now have something. It has given us a lot of help. [We have a house, a tractor, a motorcycle, all through [growing] oil palm", he says.
In Pará, the Grupo BBF Family Farming Program is being carried out in the municipalities of Tomé-Açú, Concórdia, Acará and Moju and involves more than 400 partner farmers. The company provides seedlings, barter for the purchase of fertilizers at affordable prices, technical assistance from experts in oil palm cultivation, help with bank loans, incentives for continuous improvement and guaranteed purchase of the fruit at competitive prices.
According to Grupo BBF, the families participating in the Program have delivered more than 37,000 tons of oil palm fruit, which has generated revenue of more than R$30 million for the family farmers encouraged by Grupo BBF.
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"It's very gratifying for us to support these families with knowledge and technology. This translates into more income for the region and well-being for the people. Grupo BBF reinforces its commitment to the people and communities around its operations by investing in improvements and ongoing assistance to family farmers," says Milton Steagall, CEO of Grupo BBF.
In the northern region of the country, the group generates around 7,000 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect jobs across its operations in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia and Roraima. BBF Agro is the one that employs the most workers, totaling more than 4,000 people who work mainly in the cultivation of oil palm, from the preparation of seeds to the harvesting of fruits. "Oil palm cultivation cannot be mechanized due to the characteristics of the plant. That is why we defend that in addition to being a crop that recovers degraded areas of the Amazon, it is also a solution for the generation of jobs and income in the region", explains Steagall.
