Banco do Brasil Partners with Soja Plus Program

ARTICLE IN REVISTA GLOBO RURAL
Banco do Brasil Partners with Soja Plus Program
December 4, 2104
by Sebastião Nascimento
The Program provides a guide to rural management and focuses on
sustainability and should now receive credit from a financial institution
The Soja Plus Program has been implemented in four states: Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso
do Sul, Bahia and Minas Gerais (Photo: Ernesto de Souza/Editora Globo)
Four years ago, anticipating the changes to come, ABIOVE (Brazilian Vegetable
Oil Industries Association) and APROSOJA (Mato Grosso State Soybean & Corn
Producers Association) created the Soja Plus Program, an experience that worked
and is now helping soy producers in four states. Today, in São Paulo, these two
Associations signed a partnership agreement with the Banco do Brasil, enabling
Soja Plus to give a big leap forward. The Banco do Brasil, main agribusiness
funder, should open credit lines to help those who grow crops in a sustainable
manner.
The Bank will also collaborate with the technical content in the training material,
including information on Banco do Brasil products available to the rural producer,
especially regarding the property’s socio-environmental adaptation.
The Soja Plus Program is active in four states: Mato Grosso (the largest soy
producer), Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia and Minas Gerais. Through the efficient and
constant performance of its technicians, the Soja Plus Program is providing
orientation on economic, social and environmental management to the 5,000
eligible properties. “The Soja Plus Program is an initiative that values Brazilian
agriculture by making continuous improvement in rural properties possible. The
Banco do Brasil’s participation reinforces our commitment with actions that
effectively support the evolution of sustainability efforts by the rural producers”,
said Osmar Dias, Vice President of Agribusiness at the Banco do Brasil.
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Dias said that credit would only be extended to promote sustainable practices. He
further advanced that the producer should be aware of environmental matters that,
today, are a market requirement around the world. “Necessity will make the soy
producer adhere to the project.”
According to Carlo Lovatelli, ABIOVE’s President, partnerships such as this one
with the Banco do Brasil make him optimistic and lead him to believe that the
Program should cover 90% of the soy crops over the next years. “We are already
going to the states of Paraná and Goiás”, said Lovatelli.
“The Soja Plus Program is an enormous win/win proposition”, commented
Lovatelli. It even fills a gap that has grown greatly in Brazil in the last few years,
i.e., the government deficiency in spreading technologies to the field.
I believe that the same applies to livestock farming, today lacking in technicians to
orient the farmers in times of great, irreversible changes in farm management.
R$34.1 billion
Osmar Dias said that the Banco do Brasil has freed up R$34.1 billion for rural
credit operations for the 2014/15 crop year – from July 1st to November 21st – an
increase of 27% over the same period of the prior crop year. This amount
corresponds to 41.8% of the 2014/15 crop estimate. Dias thinks that the Banco do
Brasil should disburse the stipulated R$81.5 billion at the start of the 2014/15 crop
year, which ends on June 30th next year.