Bill 431.

Summary.

The bill amends the scope of the National Grain and Other Agricultural Products Production Incentive Program established by Law 107 of November 21, 2013. It covers rice, maize, poroto beans, other beans, pigeon peas, sorghum, soybeans, potatoes, onions, and processing tomatoes. It defines the agricultural cycle, an additional cultivated hectare, land newly provided with irrigation, and yield per hectare. It also defines the covered beans, sorghum, pigeon peas, compulsory agricultural insurance, and certified seed. An additional hectare is assessed by reference to crops grown during the last three agricultural cycles; yield is harvested production divided by the planted area.

For rice, the bill proposes payments for additional hectares without irrigation and for hectares brought under irrigation or additionally cultivated with irrigation and certified seed. It also provides a payment per quintal produced when the specified rainfed or irrigated yield is reached. For maize, it establishes payments for additional area, including a category for irrigated cultivation with certified seed, and output payments with different thresholds for mechanized rainfed farming, irrigation, and cultivation using the chuzo system with technology. For poroto beans, it provides area and output payments. For the specified regional bean variety, it provides an output payment tied to the stated yield.

Sorghum used for feed would qualify for payments based on additional hectares and output. Soybeans would qualify for a payment based on additional hectares. Multipliers of rice, maize, poroto bean, and other bean seed could request payments for additional hectares planted for seed and for each quintal produced and certified; irrigated rice grown for seed has a category covering newly irrigated or additional area. Potato and onion growers could receive payments for additional hectares planted with certified seed and irrigation, as well as output payments. Processing tomatoes would qualify for a payment per quintal produced and sold to processing companies, subject to the prescribed yield. Pigeon peas would qualify for a payment per cultivated hectare and another per quintal produced.

Growers would register with the Ministry of Agricultural Development (Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario) the areas they seek to include in the Program. Depending on the crop, verification of land area would use the compulsory agricultural insurance policy or a georeferenced area supported by a technical report. Production could be established by a certificate from the relevant Ministry of Agricultural Development office or by buyer documentation, including a purchase agreement or sales invoice. For seed multipliers, the National Seed Committee (Comité Nacional de Semillas) would certify production; for processing tomatoes, the processor would report each grower’s production volume. Records held by the National Directorate of Agriculture (Dirección Nacional de Agricultura) would serve to verify the relevant hectares.

The bill requires seed certified by the National Seed Committee for eligibility under the Program. Pigeon pea growers may use any seed of that crop until the Committee approves the corresponding certified seed. The bill expressly amends Articles 2, 3, 4, and 8 of Law 107 of November 21, 2013 and provides for the proposed law to take effect upon promulgation. Its provisions concern the Ministry of Agricultural Development, the National Directorate of Agriculture, and the National Seed Committee, as well as agricultural growers, seed multipliers, agricultural insurers, crop buyers, and processing tomato companies.