Avaliação do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar sobre a renda dos agricultores familiares beneficiários do Programa Bolsa Família

Abstract

The National School Feeding Program (PNAE) plays a fundamental role as the oldest public food and nutritional security policy in Brazil. Its actions are twofold: firstly, it aims to ensure high-quality, balanced and nutritious meals for basic education students, covering the entire school period; and, secondly, it aims to promote the strengthening of family farming, by establishing guidelines for purchasing food directly from rural family producers. Within this context, Law No. 11,947/2009 stipulates that at least 30% of the resources of the National Education Development Fund (FNDE) are allocated to the acquisition of food products from family farming. This aims to create an institutional market that, in turn, supports and strengthens this agricultural sector, which has historically faced discrimination, especially among Bolsa Família Program (PBF) beneficiaries who are generally the most economically vulnerable. This relevance supported the objective of evaluating the impact of the PNAE on the income of family farming families benefiting from the Bolsa Família Program, in Brazilian municipalities, in 2018. With this, the research seeks answers about the contribution of the PNAE to income relief of the most vulnerable family farmers. The methodology used included the use of Propensity Score Matching, with adjustments of 1, 3 and 5 closest neighbors, in addition to the use of Quantile Regression as an additional method, which allowed observing the impact of the program in different income ranges of family farmers. The data used were obtained through the Municipal Basic Information Survey (MUNIC) and the Single Registry. The results reveal that the PNAE had a positive and statistically significant effect on the income of participating rural producers, contributing to an increase of 0,1% in the average income of these families in the year analyzed. When evaluating the impact beyond the average, it was found that the program had a positive and significant effect on the income of family farmers with average socioeconomic conditions (quartiles 50 and 75), while, for those with low income (quartile 25), as well as those with higher income (quartile 90), the result was not statistically significant and for those with lower socioeconomic conditions (Q10) a negative effect was observed. These results indicate that the program has the potential to positively impact the income of family entrepreneurs, as long as it is properly executed. To achieve this purpose, the effort of both implementing entities, in compliance with established laws, and family farmers, in investment and commitment in the field, is necessary.