Contract analyses for the ABC Program from a financial institution in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 crop years

Abstract

The accelerated and continuous worldwide population expansion has been leading countries to an increasing demand to the agricultural sector and, in order to meet this requirement, the development of a sustainable production is essential. The incentive to agricultural sustainability can be given through financing, such as those from the ABC Program. In view of the importance of this Program, the present study aimed to analyze the profile of the rural producer as a client of a national bank contracting the ABC modality, as well as to understand the characteristics of the Program operations carried out in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 crop years through that financial institution. In the analyzed profile, we observed a predominance of male producers aged between 44 and 73 years. Most of the contractors are from São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, they have completed higher education and are large producers. In the operations, a greater disbursement was observed for the agricultural activity than for the volume invested in livestock. The projects that received the greatest funding were Plantio Direto (No-tillage) and Recuperação (Recovery). The Southeast region is the one that stands out for contracting in the ABC Program, in which São Paulo and Minas Gerais states are the leading resource borrowers. Beef cattle, sugarcane, and soybean are the products which most used the ABC financing. Information obtained in this study showed that financial programs, exclusively, are not sufficient to encourage the agricultural sustainability. Training for producers and financial agents and the creation of specific financing terms for regions with greater vulnerability to edaphoclimatic conditions are essential.