A contribuição da COBAL e CONAB para o abastecimento e segurança alimentar em Santarém – PA

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the historical role of COBAL/CONAB in the supply of food in Santarém-PA. By studying the two companies, we learned that COBAL acted directly in the supply of subsidized food to the population (distributive public policies), while CONAB began to focus on public policies aimed at encouraging the production of Family Farming/extractives and indirect supply for vulnerable people (redistributive public policies), as in the examples of the Minimum Price Guarantee Program (PGPMbio) and the Food Acquisition Program (PAA). However, during the transition from COBAL to CONAB, we observed that the population became more dependent on the food market, as predicted by the modernization of CONAB. Unfortunately, in times of crisis, the market is not the most efficient institution to promote food and nutritional security, as in COVID-19 and the drought of 2023 and 2024 in the Lower Amazon region. Programs such as PAA and PGPM are essential to support small producers and rural development, and they contribute to addressing food and nutritional security problems. Thus, the research concludes that there was a change in the scope of the state structure from direct and distributive supply (COBAL) to indirect and redistributive (CONAB). One question remains open in the work, as a result of the results, whether the physical presence of CONAB, with an administrative unit in Santarém, would be imperative for a faster response from the state's distributive structure in the event of a crisis, such as COVID-19 and the environmental crises resulting from the drought of 2023 and 2024, along the lines of the emergency and humanitarian assistance that is part of its competence. We leave this question to instigate new research to understand more deeply the role of CONAB in emergency responses to this type of public calamity.