Brazil Farmers Block Roads to Demand Aid

[struggle4progress]

BRAZIL: June 1, 2005


SAO PAULO - Thousands of Brazilian grain farmers blocked highways with their tractors on Tuesday to press demands for government aid to help them cope with drought and the effects of a weak dollar.


Farmers parked their tractors across roads in the main cities of leading agricultural states Mato Grosso, Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, Goias and Sao Paulo, the National Agricultural Confederation (CNA) said.

"We want the government and the population to feel the problems affecting agriculture this year, problems that are driving the farmer to bankruptcy," president of the Londrina Rural Union in Parana, Luiz Fernando Kalinowski, said.

Brazilian agricultural exports are helping sustain growth in South America's largest economy and farmers say the government owes them its support.

Brazil's currency, the real, has appreciated to its strongest rate against the dollar in over three years and cut into grain farmers' export earnings and domestic sales. <snip>

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31054/story.htm