Brazilian food acquisition program from the perspective of family farmers in the maciço de baturité region

The emergence of public policies that favor activities developed by family farmers can reduce the rural exodus that mainly affects the young population of the Brazilian semi-arid Northeast. Among these policies, the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) stands out. In this sense, the objective of this work was to know the main challenges and benefits of the Food Acquisition Program for family agriculture in the rural territory of the Baturité Massif, Ceará, through the perspective of the farmers themselves. For this purpose, one municipality was selected from each of the three sub-regions of the Baturité Massif, which had a higher absolute number of farmers benefited from the program. The PAA DATA, a system of the Ministry of Social and Agrarian Development (MDS) was used as the basis for these numbers. Following this criterion, the municipalities of Mulungu, Capistrano and Barreira were selected, where a semi-structured questionnaire with farmers was subsequently applied. The answers obtained with the questionnaire showed that some products from family agriculture cannot be purchased by the program, among them the fruit pulp and products of animal origin. Both products are not commercialized due to health issues imposed by regulatory agencies. Regarding the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the program, it is worth emphasizing, mainly, the scarcity of technical assistance found in most of the municipalities surveyed. This research concludes that the Food Acquisition Program is fundamental for strengthening family agriculture, and this fact is demonstrated by farmers. However, many problems still prevent this program from expressing its full potential, problems that range from logistics and storage to assistance difficulties.