Acquisition of vegetables through the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE)

Abstract

The objective of this research was to verify the main vegetables acquired by the Brazilian national school feeding program in municipalities of state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Financial transfers, and values spent on the purchase of food from farmers in the period from 2013 to 2017 were analyzed. Regarding the number of students and municipalities served, and number of producers (natural person and legal person), through secondary sources of the Brazilian national fund for educational development (FNDE), data on the acquisition of family farms were obtained and extracted from a Brazilian account management system (SiGPC). The data were submitted to descriptive statistical analysis and, through figures and tables, the absolute and percentage frequencies were computed with the purpose of extracting information from the sample studied. The descriptive character of the work was mainly determined by the purpose of recording, analyzing and relating the variables without manipulating them. In the research, it was concluded that the main vegetables purchased by the program were lettuce, beets, chayote (or chuchu), carrots and cabbage. The Northern and Midwestern regions had higher average prices of the kilo than the other regions. It was verified that in only four municipalities, producers are organized in associations and cooperatives with valid legal DAP (a declaration of suitability for the Pronaf program), which makes it clear that it is necessary to stimulate the formation of associations of these farmers, increasing the commercialization of foodstuffs from family farms for school feeding.