Readout of the meeting between the FAO Director-General and the Minister for Citizenship of Brazil

29 October 2021, Rome – The FAO Director-General, Dr QU Dongyu, met the Minister for Citizenship of Brazil, João Roma, on the side-lines of the G20 Summit of Heads of State and Government. 

The Minister stressed the efforts of the Brazilian Government to ensure food security and improved nutrition to its population, particularly in relation to the most vulnerable. He mentioned two programmes in this sense: Auxílio Brasil (“Aid Brazil” in free translation) and Alimenta Brasil (“Feeds Brazil”), through which the Government purchases food products from smallholders and family farmers to distribute through social programmes, including school feeding. He pointed out several benefits of this programme, such as providing market access to small farmers and promoting the consumption of local and fresh products as well as the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from long transportation and packaging.

The Minister highlighted the importance of FAO for Brazil and stated that the Brazilian Government aims to strengthen collaboration, particularly in terms of sharing knowledge and expertise.

The Director-General recognized the importance of Brazil for food security globally as one of the main food producers, and stressed that the Brazilian Government should indeed support smallholders and family farmers to fight rural poverty and food insecurity. He stressed FAO’s vision of adopting an integrated approach and transforming agri-food systems to overcome today’s challenges based on the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.