In Brazil’s drought, compensating the poor

OtPR the other day suggested compensation as drought mitigation:

If the goal is drought resilience, we could use money instead of water to keep farm communities intact until a wet year.  If it is important that farm workers in Mendota live decent lives during droughts, we don’t have to find non-existent water for their employers’ farms.  We could just hand the farm workers fat checks.

In Brazil, they’re already doing this:

Now the government is applying a income transfer programme, inspired by the Bolsa-Familia, such as Bolsa Estiagem and Garantia Safra. The first is focused on family farmers with an income of up to two monthly minimum wages living in emergency areas. About 940,000 families are receiving R$80 a month ($34,64). The Garantia Safra programme provides support to farmers who have lost at least 50% of their harvests. More than 700,000 farmers have received R$70 in five payments. So far, the federal government has spent about R$16bn to mitigate the effects of drought on the livelihood of farmers.