The project “ Family Farm Mechanization Program” (FFMP) has as its main objective to transform small farms that develop rudimentary and subsistence agriculture into productive, mechanized farms with low- cost systems and innovative production systems, that increase production, generate income for families, changing the quality of life and encouraging young people to stay in the countryside.

This project is a program implemented in small municipalities in rural Brazil area, which was very successful. Farmers obtained great improvement in production and also quality of life. The program name in Portuguese is CIRCULO DE MAQUINAS, in free translation into English is called, MACHINERY CIRCLE. The authorities organize farmers into groups, the farmers elect a board and receive a booklet with the rules of the group. The authorities buy the machines, and rent these farmers groups. This program was so successful in Brazil, approximately 10 years of the program, all farmers were able to buy their own machines and today have modern properties, mechanized production and excellent quality of life.

The mechanization on farms enables farmers to have:

• Planting security
• Better soil preparation
• Greater agility in planting
• Increased production
• Reduced losses and soil conservation

This project is developed with innovative methods of soil preparation, planting and crop management. The whole production system has no-till concept. Farmers do not need to plow the land every new crop season and it creates a layer of straw on the surface of the soil, this layer of straw protects the soil on strong sun, rain erosion and maintains the humidity in the earth reducing the risk of losses with miss rainfall, besides forming a layer of natural fertilizer increasing the production of the farm.

The program extends between 2 up to 30 hectares of crop, in three different modules, and provides various kinds of equipments, from planters and handling tools, like forks and machetes, until tractors and implements - improving time, reducing costs, increasing the production and giving these farmers the conditions to grow and stabilize in a mechanized enviroment.