BRAZILIAN President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva relaunched the Food Acquisition Programme, a flagship policy of his previous administration abolished by Jair Bolsonaro, on Wednesday.

The programme sees the state buy up food from small family farms and redistribute it to people deemed food insecure. It also mandates that at least 30 per cent of food served at public school lunches comes from family farms.

It aims at supporting indigenous and traditional agricultural production rather than big agribusiness, as well as to address hunger in a country where an estimated 33 million people struggle to get enough to eat.

Lula said: “Those who have never been hungry do not know how much they would miss eating. I promise that people will eat three times a day again.”

At the launch farmer Denise Alves dos Santos said: “For us peasants it’s very important, because we can show what we can contribute, for the municipality, the state and the whole country. We as women bring sustenance to our families.”