The Commission on the Amazon and Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that recognizes indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and other traditional peoples and communities as family farmers.
With this, these people will have access to rural credit, technical assistance and rural extension, marketing policies, and government purchasing programs.
The text also requires that a minimum percentage of the community's income comes from the activity carried out by the establishment or enterprise. This percentage will be defined by the federal government.
The committee adopted thesubstituteproposed by the rapporteur, Deputy Célia Xakriabá (Psol-MG), to Bill 2845/25, proposed by Deputy Defensor Stélio Dener (União-RR). Theapproved textexpanded the original version that only dealt with indigenous peoples.
Access to public policies
The rapporteur argued that, although these peoples are already included in theFamily Farming Law, some criteria still make it difficult to access public policies aimed at family farming.
"The imposition of conditions ultimately makes it impossible to classify them as family farmers for the purposes of public policies," the deputy observed.
According to the report, indigenous peoples develop production systems that combine agriculture, extractive activities, forest management, and environmental conservation.
These activities contribute to the food security of communities, the preservation of agrobiodiversity, and the maintenance of traditional seed and crop varieties.
Célia Xakriabá also highlighted that the National Registry of Family Agriculture already allows identifying belonging to indigenous peoples and traditional communities through self-declaration, which, in her opinion, demonstrates the compatibility of these segments with the category of family farmers.
Next steps
The project will now be analyzed by the Committee on Constitution and Justice and Citizenship. As it has received divergent opinions from the committees responsible for analyzing its merit, the proposal has lostconclusive natureand will need to be voted on by the Plenary.
To become law, the text must be approved by the Chamber and the Senate.