If there is a certainty in 40 years of work, so many published texts, lectures and the delicious and wise conversations with producers, amidst barbecues, fish, barley and reeds.

The fact is that the finitude comes to me without my having been able to clarify that agribusiness, entrepreneurial agriculture, family farming, agrarian reform settlements, are segments that should not be seen in opposition, but complementary and necessary.

It does not matter if for centuries we made mistakes in one way and in more recent decades we made mistakes in another. It is an impossible past to correct, conditioned by the ways in which consumption has developed on the planet, which society has been able to rearrange in an autochthonous way. It will be up to future generations to put them in innovative bands.

This impression is confirmed in the internet opinion. Before, perhaps, I only dealt with “equals”. Now I see a direct, dry audience. Not that I weigh negative or uneducated opinions, but rather Manichean approaches, as if there were no differences between the types of crops and creations and their dimensions in the face of world consumption.

If I announce the benefits of the export of commodities as the right option for Brazil, salvation of the trade balance and jobs, someone will come with primary goods that add nothing, environmental devastation, land concentration, rural exodus.

If I ask for more government support for family farming, for the benefits of food security and social inclusion, which would alleviate the evils mentioned above, ruralists point out fallacies and deny the statistics.

I affirm the excellence of certain settlements, originated from agrarian reform in unproductive lands, organized by the MST, respond with the return of communism, commerce of lots, vagabonds supported by the Bolsa Família.

If I write about the difficulties of resources and the competence of government agencies in matching the titling bullshit of colonization in indigenous lands, they say that Indians do not want whistle blowing anymore, but cell phones and cachaça. When they don’t murder them.

Gentlemen, agriculture and cattle raising is a part of agribusiness. We need to learn how to separate weeds from wheat. Things to overcome and suppress. To counter them is a mistake.

In the last two weeks, I returned to Andanças Capitais and suffered two air disasters. On land, of course. “Weather conditions,” they say. I believe and respect them, even though the expression may have other meanings: optimization of the number of passengers, routes with lower costs, change of crews.

Who was in Manaus, didn’t want to fly with her husband Gustavo, who would soon leave from Guararapes to Confins. “I want to tell him personally that he will be a father.

My troubled arrivals at the Triângulo Mineiro – a lot of coffee will be harvested – and at an unprecedented rainy São Francisco Valley, reinforced my prediction of another good agricultural year.

In Petrolina, I visit “Seiva do Vale” and meet friends and professionalism from the owners, Aldemir and Claudiana, and from the technical-commercial team: Leandro, Daniel, Hélder, Onailton, Marcos Solone, and a group of girls to take off all hats. Friends really, by age, friendliness or beauty. Choose.

At the Bodódromo, we toast the kidneys of goats stuck in our forks. In the “Pot of Clay”, I saw the always mentioned friend Nego, who is white, Antônio and Pará.

I learned about the productive evolution of several settlements. Small lots, as the nostalgic readers of Francisco Julião, Gondim da Fonseca, Vitor Nunes Leal, Miguel Arraes like it.

Productive and sustainable, expensive “São Paulo pumped thighs”. Soybeans, sugarcane? No, grapes, melons, guavas, mangoes, acerola, bananas, onions, tomatoes. Products appreciated even in toucan lands.

How? No? Ah, only in the form of foams prepared by renowned chefs.

Less demanding, on the edge of the Velho Chico, the watermelon producers are happy. They receive R$ 0,45/kg of fruit. How much we pay in South Wonder for the watermelon foam. Who is drinking too much? You or the producers?

Ouro Verde Settlement, in Lagoa Grande. Have you ever mentioned the daily leaves and canvases of the apocalypse? There, more than a hundred families, with lots of 6 hectares, produce table grapes. The women receive R$ 3,000 in funding and for men R$ 6,000 (feminists, don’t complain, I’m talking about working families).

An old farm, abandoned after owing much to the banks, was expropriated by the government for agrarian reform. In the beginning there were deviations, identified and corrected by INCRA. Today, only the families were willing to produce.

Between sales and purchases of land, a farm of the notorious and deceased Antônio Carlos Magalhães was returned. It became the Catalonia settlement, with 600 families. A year ago, the new owners created an Association to build a headquarters, obtain irrigation, technical assistance and financial support from banks in Brazil and the Northeast.