The project promotes community participation in the sanitary defence system by structuring the Municipal Councils of Agricultural Sanitation (CSA) in 91% of the municipalities of the State of Paraná. The official defence service was enhanced to help improve the sanitary status and promote economic development.

The CSA were fundamental for the creation of sanitary awareness in the community that boosted the participation of producers in animal and plant inspections, in the creation of an emergency fund, and in the structuring of an official defence service. It has also been decisive in the achievement and maintenance of sanitary conditions that enable financial development.

A - GENERAL INFORMATION

START: 1999 (in progress)

EXECUTING ENTITY: Agriculture Federation of the State of Paraná/National Rural Learning Service – FAEP/SENAR System

CO-EXECUTORS: Institute of Technical Assistance and Rural Expansion of Paraná – EMATER; Agricultural Defence Agency of Paraná – ADAPAR;

PARTNERSHIPS: Ministry of Agriculture of Paraná, Municipal Councils, Rural Worker Unions

PRESENTED BY: Celso Doliveira

RESOURCES: Own and third-party resources

COST RANGE: Over USD 25,000.00

CATEGORY: Project

MAIN THEMATIC AREA: Agriculture

KEY WORDS: Sanitation; Agriculture; Livestock Husbandry; Education; Community; Councils; Food Safety; Development; Zoonosis.

TARGET PUBLIC: Rural producers, traders of agricultural and livestock husbandry inputs, agroindustry entrepreneurs, rural unions, rural worker unions, producer associations and municipal councils.

LOCATION: Rural area

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: Statewide

SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTATION AREA: State of Paraná

B - PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

1 - BACKGROUND

The project of the Municipal Councils of Agricultural Sanitation - CSA - was created to provide inter-institutional support for the National Programme for the Control and Eradication of Foot-and-Mouth Disease – PNEFA at the end of the 1990s. The aim of the project was to raise awareness among rural workers on the need for maintaining high animal vaccination rates for foot-and-mouth-disease, and on how to reach the status of “free of foot-and-mouth-disease with vaccination”. This recognition of the World Health Organization occurred in the year 2000.

After achieving these result, the CSA focused on other areas, such as zoonotic diseases, plant culture pests, and environmental and food safety. In the area of agriculture, the main pests that motivated the actions of the CSA were leaf-cutter ant infestations, Asian soybean rust, and issues related to soil conservation. The work of the CSA has been a determining factor for disseminating knowledge to create the awareness of producers in relation to improving their sanitary and environmental practices.

 2 - OVERALL GOALS

Increase the effectiveness of official programmes for the control of zoonoses, diseases and pests, and food safety.

Specific Objectives:

• Promote sanitary food safety for the population and conquer national and international markets;
• Promote community participation in the discussion about local sanitary issues;
• Foster sanitary awareness of products among producers and leaders.

3 - ADOPTED SOLUTION

From 2007 to 2010 efforts were made to strengthen the agricultural sanitation project to reactivate the CSA. These efforts resulted in 369 implemented CSA. Meetings for Phase I arranged by the local offices of the EMATER were held to mobilize and raise awareness among agricultural leaders for the establishment of the CSA. Leaders of the public sector (secretaries, councilpersons and civil servants) and the private sector (producers, workers and entrepreneurs) attended these meetings. Meetings were also held in Phase II to create the Action Plan and assign the leadership positions of the implemented CSA.

To support the CSA Strengthening Project, a computer system - CSA System - was created to manage the activities, provide information to the council members and survey data for the sanitary economic diagnosis of the municipalities. The meeting called “CSA Maintenance” was held to evaluate the work done and train the CSA directors to use the CSA System. 

4 - RESULTS

In the first stage of the project, from 1997 to 1999, 132 Councils were created to operate in the Local Agricultural Sanitation Units of the Agricultural Defence Agency of Paraná - ADAPAR. The work of the CSA resulted in the following indicators:

• 5104 hours of training with 17,408 attendees from 2008 to 2010;
• Cattle vaccination rates over 90% since 2000;
• Cattle vaccination in 100% of the frontier municipalities with trained and assisted vaccinators;
• Recognition of Paraná as Free of Foot-and-Mouth Disease with Vaccination in 2002;
• Creation of the Agricultural Development Fund of the State of Paraná – FUNDEPEC, to compensate producers during emergency Foot-and-Mouth disease outbreaks;
• Increased exports of pork (80%), beef (75%) and poultry meat (90%);
• Vaccination rates for brucellosis rose from 15% to 65%;
• Brucellosis and tuberculosis testing in dairy cattle rose by more than 50%;
• Greater community participation in focal and perifocal vaccination during rabies outbreaks in herbivores;
• Greater cooperation of producers to mitigate the risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy – active control rose by 80%;
• Hundreds of courses in the areas of animal and plant sanitation;
• Sanitary status was elevated from level C to level B for poultry sanitation in 2010;
• Reduction of clandestine slaughterhouses and the sale of meat without health inspections in the municipalities;
• Improved disease notification system;
• Improved citrus greening control from the eradication of orange jasmine; 
• Improved milk quality by reducing somatic cell count (SCC) and total bacterial cell count;
• Improved registration of establishments and animals at the official agricultural defence organ;
• Dissemination of source protection techniques;
• Increased collection of agrotoxic substance packaging;
• Increased selective collection of recyclable waste in rural communities;
• Increased use of soil conservation techniques.

5 - NECESSARY RESOURCES

Professionals of the field of agrarian sciences that work with animal and plant sanitation and the environment. These professionals can be public or private agents. Public civil servants of partner entities have the functional role of participating in the councils during work hours. In some cases, technicians of the private sector are asked, by the companies, to work in the Council, while others are asked to work as volunteers.

Other necessary resources are computer and video equipment, vehicles, course books, text books, folders, posters and a system for computer communication, and the collection and storage of data that is produced or provided by the partners.

6 - TRANSFER

For more than 12 years, since the project was created, the Councils of Agricultural Sanitation have been implemented in more than 350 state municipalities, with 10 regional and state gatherings for exchanging experiences between the CSA. The positive experiences are shared to encourage the CSA that are facing greater difficulties.

7 - LESSONS LEARNED

FAEP/SENAR has managed to promote the participation of producers in sanitary policy decision and prepare leaders with a greater level of information and better judgement. These leaders have proactively learned to foster changes and interfere in the public policies for the benefit of the community.

The adopted CSA board model, which involved specialists (animal and plant sanitation) of the ADAPAR and Municipal Agriculture Secretaries, under the leadership of private sector entrepreneurs, promoted the involvement of actors who were traditionally on opposite sides (health authority vs. reported). However, in the CSA they were both responsible for finding solutions for the public health problems in the municipality. The implementation methodology that included raising awareness among the leaders of the private sector and their participation during the surveying and prioritization of public health issues in the municipality enabled a discussion on the local scenario.

 The action plan that was used to establish goals, define indicators and assign the persons responsible for the actions, as well as the registration of all these activities in the computer system, allowed auditing of internal and external clients. This is an innovation in the management of the state defence system, where the community shifts from passive participation to active participation.

8 - ORIGINALITY OF THE PRACTICE

The benchmark of this practice was the Animal Health Defence Groups - AHDG - created in France in the 1950s based on the organization of producers that sought to help the French government structure an agricultural defence system.

Visits to this practice are available from February to November, from Monday to Friday.

Number of visitors: from 01 to 40.

Attachments:

Minuta do estatuto das CSAs

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