The Brazilian government on Wednesday launched a five-billion-U.S.-dollar plan to help small- and medium-sized farms for the 2006-2007 harvest season.

The plan, announced at the third Family Agriculture and Reform Fair, will offer 300 million U.S. dollars in credit to cooperatives and farmers who need to borrow between 2,500 and 1 million dollars.

The plan also creates an organization called the Brazilian Technical Assistance and Rural Extension program, which will send 20,000 experts to 4,000 rural regions.

Agriculture Minister Guilherme Cassel said the government's plan, part of the National Family Agriculture Reform Program (Pronaf), would make its first disbursements in July.

"We can proudly say that those who did not have money, now have money," Cassel said.

"Our idea is that by the end of the 2006-2007 harvest season, we will be able to make expert help universally available, and that all of Pronaf's farmers will receive qualified and guaranteed help, as well as the loan," he added.

Brazil's main family farming organization Via Campesina (Peasant Road), praised some aspects of the plan, such as agricultural insurance, technical assistance and a government promise to buy some of the food produced by the farmers. However it also said the plan needed to have more resources.

Source: Xinhua