BOGOTA, Colombia — At the end of 2018 and to take stock of the first four months at the head of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister Andrés Rafael Valencia Pinzón highlighted as his greatest achievement the implementation of the marketing strategy ‘Coseche, Venda a la Fija’ (‘Harvest, Sell to the Fixed’), with which will benefit about 300 thousand rural producers in the next four years, providing mechanisms that will allow them to ensure the sale of their crops.
Likewise, he indicated that the agricultural portfolio following the guidelines of the President of the Republic Iván Duque Márquez, obtained other remarkable achievements such as the allocation of support for the marketing and promotion of consumption close to 175 billion pesos, to alleviate price situations. producers of coffee, corn, livestock, palm, rice, paneleros, fish farmers, among others.
The process for the allocation of subsidies for rural housing was revitalized, the process of restructuring the rural financing system was initiated, thanks to the health care plan implemented by the Ministry, the outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease that occurred in the country and with it recover the status; Likewise, there have been positive advances in technology and rural development.
In this regard, Minister Valencia said “the new vision for the agricultural sector is to work ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with all actors in the agricultural sector: we are a government close to the people, working with the regions in the construction of a field with equity, “he said at the time he reported in these first months the Ministry arrived with solutions to 21 departments, which represents more of the national territory.
Achievements:
‘Harvest, Sell to the Fixed’
Among the results, we can first highlight the implementation of the strategy of ‘Harvest, sell to the fixed’, which will benefit 300,000 producers with marketing alternatives and a line of credit, which is the lowest From the market.
The head of the agricultural portfolio indicated that the line of credit will invest $ 100,000 million to leverage credits for up to $ 750,000 million.
In addition, the strategy of ‘Harvest, Sell to the Fixed’ has another series of mechanisms for producers such as technical assistance, business roundtables and certification of good practices, among other issues, with an amount of up to $ 21,000 million.
Relief to prices and consumer promotion
Another of the milestones that the Minister highlighted for the management were the measures that were made available to alleviate the price situation. For coffee growers: $ 100,000 million were allocated. For rice farmers : $ 44,865 million were allocated. For the dairy sector: $ 10 billion was allocated. For producers of white and yellow corn: $ 3,250 million were allocated. Support for the export of panela: $ 1,000 million were allocated. Promotion to the consumption of palm, potato, coffee, meat, milk, egg and fish: $ 10,000 million were allocated.
Most Worthy Rural Housing
On the subject of public goods, Minister Valencia Pinzón emphasized that the ‘Most Dignified Rural Housing’ program was launched, which as of 2019 will have an investment of $ 1.5 billion, benefiting 90,000 people. At this point the head of the agricultural portfolio insisted that the idea is to “reduce the lag that exists in the construction of rural housing.”
More dynamic credit
One of the bets of Minister Valencia Pinzón is to have a more dynamic loan and the results have been achieved. According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, $ 5.1 trillion in agricultural credit was placed in investment, benefiting 150,000 producers.
Fight against smuggling:
Finally, Minister Valencia Pinzón highlighted that the fight against smuggling had already yielded the first results with positive figures, because thanks to the Unified Command Center to combat smuggling, five structures had been dismantled at the national level with 33 captured people.
346 livestock units (equivalent to $ 365 million) were also seized; 38 tons of carcass meat were retained (worth more than $ 350 million); and more than 1.5 million units of perishable food were seized.
The head of the agricultural portfolio said that we have defined in these months “our policy that will have the focus of Field for Equity, to continue working intensely rural development linking the formula: Productivity + Profitability = Competitiveness, depending on an institutionality modern and technified”.
