O Sistema Nacional de Crédito Rural no Brasil: principais continuidades e descontinuidades no período 2003-2014

This article analyzes the main continuities and discontinuities of Brazil’s National Rural Credit System, with an emphasis on the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming, between 2003 and 2014. To this end, between 2014 and 2017 a series of interviews was carried out with managers and former federal public managers who played a strategic role in the area of agricultural financing, before and during the time period studied, in addition to a literature review and data consultation of the Central Bank of Brazil and of ministries whose performance is linked to the theme. The main results indicate continuities in rural credit policies and procedures in the governments of Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Some changes observed, which cannot be considered as ruptures from earlier periods, involved mainly the expansion in the volume of resources applied, reduced bureaucracy for accessing financing, expansion of the target public, new lines of credit, a greater discussion with civil society and the construction of new complementary instruments for rural credit aimed at family farming, such as farm insurance.