It has been baptized the Tractor Traffic Jam (“tratoraço”) and is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Some 15,000 family farmers are expected to park some 2,000 tractors on the wide avenues in the heart of Brazil’s political center.
The demonstration on Brasélia’s mall (Esplanada) is sponsored by the Farm Confederation of Brazil (CNA) in order to make people aware of the crisis in the agricultural sector in some states due to bad weather, low prices for produce, disloyal competition, a lack of credit, debts and a lousy exchange rate.
According to Claudinei Rigonato, one of the organizers of the event, the farmers have proposals to improve the situation.
“We must obtain relief for at least some of the problems that the family farmer faces. We need an adequate answer from the government. If we cannot obtain relief for at least some of the problems that the family farmer faces, we want to make it clear that the tractors are going to stop. They will stay in Brasília,” he declared
Rigonato explained that the farmers want more access to credit and funding for the sector.
“We want to make it clear that we are not asking for our debts to be pardoned. That is not what we are up to. We want assistance so we can get through this crisis. So we can continue farming, pay our bills and have a big harvest in the future,” he concluded.
ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br
