Pronaf: evaluative portrait in the mesoregions of Minas Gerais

Abstract

The main financing instrument for Brazilian family agriculture is the national program for the strengthening of family farming (Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar – Pronaf) that emerged in the mid-1990s. Since its creation, Pronaf has been expanding its budgetary resources, its lines of credit, and its target audience. The objective of this article was to evaluate the distribution of resources of the Program among the mesoregions of Minas Gerais state, in the period from 2013 to 2021. We sought to identify which lines of credit and which crop or livestock activity received more resources, and how these were distributed among the mesoregions of the state. The research methodology is classified as documentary and quantitative, as it employs quantification both in the collection and in the systematization of data, through the use of descriptive statistics techniques. The data treatment, through the adopted indicators, shows that the mesoregions of Minas Gerais were identified for the most benefited ones, according to the division carried out by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). These data also show if the volume of these benefits would be proportionally related to the number of family farmers.