INTRODUCTION

In August 1996, the Council of the Community Solidarity Program convened a meeting to discuss agrarian reform. Among those participating were the Ministers of Agrarian Policy and of Agriculture, a representative of the rural landowners, directors of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura - CONTAG) and leaders of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST), as well as advisors from the Community Solidarity Program itself.

In spite of the persistent disagreements among workers, landowners and government representatives, the discussion convinced the participants that the profound changes underway in the rural areas were irreversible. Moreover, the three groups succeeded in producing a document, something that was unprecedented in the discussion of rural conflicts, that contained seven points of consensus about agrarian reform:

a rural development policy is necessary; it should include an agrarian reform program and measures to strengthen family farms;

the agrarian reform process requires substantial input from various organizations and from all three levels of government (federal, state and municipal), as well as from the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary powers;

the implementation of agrarian reform requires more agile and efficient bureaucratic procedures and greater government administrative capacity;

the effective implementation of agrarian reform requires the allocation and timely release of budgetary and financial resources if the government is to achieve its goals;

Brazilian agrarian legislation needs to be updated and the legal procedures must be accelerated;

the sustainable development of the land settlements is a necessary condition for the success of agrarian reform;

the entire agrarian reform process requires cooperation among the pertinent government and non-government actors.

These have been, in effect, the directives that guide my government's actions as we attempt to rectify the inadequate and unjust agrarian structure that Brazil inherited from its colonial past. And much has been done.

In 1996, the number of settlements of landless families was five times greater than the annual average of any prior government. We simplified the legal procedures for land appropriations; we provided more financial resources and released them more quickly.

The amendment to the Rural Land Tax (Imposto Territorial Rural - ITR), approved in December 1996, increased the rate from 4.5% to 20% for large unproductive landholdings. It simultaneously simplified and facilitated the collection of the tax. The new ITR, by itself, will revolutionize the country's land structure.

The government, in conjunction with Congress, is taking rigorous measures to control violence and to combat impunity. In the legal area, we have already outlawed the unauthorized carriage of weapons. We have sanctioned the law that transfers, from the Military Court to the Civil Court, jurisdiction over crimes against life committed by military police. Moreover, the Chamber of Deputies is considering two bills, one of which was drafted by the government, that would permit normal criminal courts to try every-day crimes committed by the military police. Another law, approved recently, deals with the crime of torture. Finally, the Chamber of Deputies is debating a proposed constitutional amendment that would grant the Federal Court jurisdiction over human rights violations.

In the administrative area, the Federal Police and the armed forces have joined in a cooperative effort to disarm people in locations of conflict. This is a preventive measure that could reduce significantly violence in the countryside.

By the end of my four-year administration, the government will have resettled at least 280,000 families -- about 25% more than were settled by all previous governments combined since 1964. However, it is becoming ever clearer, to both the government and to society, that resettlement is not enough. Of the resettlements made through 1994, some 40,000 families abandoned the land on which they were resettled. The rest remain on the land, but they are totally or partially dependent upon government assistance programs.

While the principal challenge of agrarian reform remains that of giving land to those who do not have any, it is becoming increasingly important to assure that those who are resettled can become productive, self-sustaining farmers.

This is the objective of the new programs that the government has either implemented or is about to implement. The programs are based on the assumption that the federal government must better integrate its resettlement efforts; devolve many of its initiatives to the states and municipalities; and, finally, increase its cooperative relationships with society. These programs are explained in the chapters that follow.

My government is attempting to do its part. It is doing more than was done during any previous period. But we are also aware that more needs to be done and that, while the land structure is truly unjust, the problem is more complex. Today the problem has just as much to do with the absorption of labor being released by the profound transformation of the rural productive system. What occurred in Europe during the last century is being repeated in Brazil in the second half of the 20th century.

The objective of agrarian reform should not necessarily be to increase agricultural production; rather, it should be to create productive and profitable employment for the thousands of Brazilians who seek their livelihoods in the countryside. Thus, support programs for the small farmer and job creation should accompany agrarian reform measures. This has been our policy.

Agrarian reform is not, therefore, just an economic issue. It is above all a social and moral issue that can be resolved only by a coordination of efforts among the three branches of government and through an effective commitment by the entire society.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso