The chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Máximo Torero, was in the country from April 8 to 10 and in this interview with Prensa Libre, the international official refers to the initiative that is works with the Government, which includes development plans to attract investors from different entities.
It also talks about the prioritization of public investments in the agricultural sector, to complement emergency strategies to avoid famine with those that allow us to sustainably escape poverty.
What is the reason for your visit to Guatemala?
The FAO has a very large program, called Mano de la Mano, and Guatemala is one of the countries that is in the initiative. The objective of my visit is to present this initiative to the Government, support the Ministry of Agriculture and in general, the priorities on the subject through the technical support that FAO can provide through our local office and the central office in Rome.
The project helps and works with governments and FAO provides technical support to develop a framework (structure) that allows them to prioritize public investments in the agricultural sector. By agriculture, at FAO we refer not only to seeds, corn or beans, but also fruit trees, livestock, aquaculture and fishing, and forestry.
For example, this project identifies areas in the territory where agriculture can lift households out of poverty because they have the agricultural potential to achieve it, but have not achieved it. What is sought is to identify the bottlenecks and make investment plans to reduce them so that that farmer can move from earning US$1 a day to earning US$7.
How much has been invested and in what areas?
What the project does and which is part of the strategy that the government now has in terms of agriculture is to prioritize some value chains, irrigation, sustainable livestock and other activities.
Investment plans are made and developed, they are measured, we attract investors from different entities that can be investment banks or international organizations, but we also work a lot with the private sector because this is a country where foreign investment is very low and should be a lot. larger.
What investments are we currently talking about?
We are in the process of obtaining financing so there are no concrete investments yet, but the investments in irrigation are for around US$250 million and are part of a program in the Dry Corridor.
We also have soil activities, with an investment of US$7 million to map and systematize information to help producers.
And in value chains, we have cardamom, coffee and cocoa; The total investment required to achieve objectives and to eliminate bottlenecks is US$92 million with a return rate of 19%, 17,500 direct beneficiaries and 91,000 indirect beneficiaries. There is also the rural roads project.
What are the agricultural prospects and challenges in the region?
It must be contextualized with the world since at this time they have faced shocks powerful. Prices have been falling in the last seven months, although in the last month those of the commodities. But the prices of final goods, which is what I consume in the market, continue to rise.
Latin America in general is a region that exports food, as is the case of Guatemala, but it is a region that will be affected by climate change and this is what must be worked on to increase resilience.
The main problem right now for the Latin American and Caribbean region is access to healthy diets because its cost is one of the highest in the world, despite the fact that it exports food.
In the specific case of Guatemala, a lot of work is still required to improve nutrition levels and try to improve access to healthy foods, especially in the West. This will mean not only concentrating on large export chains, but also on products for domestic consumption.
That, so that you can have food, given that it is a country that has water and very good soils. Then we must look at ways to improve the productivity of small producers and give them more access to technology so that they can produce high-value products on a larger scale.
Have you detected any food crisis in Guatemala?
What happens is that certain parts of Guatemala have a very low income level and the poverty rate is more than 50%, mainly in the West, where investments should be prioritized. The Dry Corridor area also has a lot of potential.
Furthermore, although it is true that many remittances enter the country, that does not imply that they are converted into better agricultural productivity that can be marketed.
So what are the challenges of agriculture in Guatemala in terms of climate change?
On this issue, what is happening in the world is an increase in the frequency of climate shocks, so Guatemala has to become more resilient, especially in the most vulnerable households; improve the tools we give them; promote agricultural and catastrophic insurance, to have greater preventive capacity.
And secondly, we must help its shock absorption capacity through technologies, innovation, resistant varieties and extreme temperatures. But we must also help the most vulnerable through social protection programs and trade is going to be central because we will have to import in case there is a climate crisis in the country.
In public policies, what challenges do you detect?
The most important thing is in terms of the question of politics and governance. What the government is trying to do is an investment prioritization strategy because resources are not unlimited and it is necessary to help get out of poverty in a sustainable way, which is why we are supporting with the Mano de la Mano program, which seeks to design a territorial strategy to identify areas with agricultural potential.
Secondly, we must seek complementarity between interventions. For example, there is a rural roads program called Avenues for Good Living, which are rural roads, and the idea is how to optimize them in areas where productivity will be improved, so that they have better access to markets and move the product at a faster speed. .
And thirdly, there is a great need to generate project execution capacities, since sometimes there are very good designs and plans, but the execution capacity of local governments is not at the level it should be.
I think there is a great will and a great space to accelerate this process and we must support it. This is what FAO is doing.
All strategies of Sesan (Secretariat of Food Security), the Ministries of Development and Health must seek coordination and monitor them to see that they are being implemented appropriately. Emergency strategies to avoid famine and those designed to sustainably escape poverty must be complemented, because I cannot simply continue with emergency strategies.
Did you meet with the President of the Republic and other authorities?
We had three meetings with Maga and also with the President (Bernardo Arévalo). The FAO office in Guatemala is permanently working with Maga and we are very aligned to support irrigation initiatives, insurance, sustainable livestock, land issues and the Dry Corridor projects.
The idea is how we can get the necessary resources to satisfy these investments and how to ensure that this territorial design that we are doing and working with the government can also help organize the investments of other sectors, such as roads, infrastructure and energy. , things that are necessary for value chains to improve not only for export but also for local production.
Offers cooperation
Torero explained that FAO wants to deepen cooperation with the new government of Guatemala, chaired by Bernardo Arévalo, to accelerate the transformation of the country’s agri-food systems.
During his visit to the country, the official met with the president and discussed cooperation to support the government’s strategy to address the issue of food insecurity. “We believe there is a great opportunity right now and FAO is here to support the president’s strategy,” he said.
Among the topics discussed, the need to accelerate the execution of the irrigation project for 45 thousand hectares of crops in the driest areas affected by climate change in the country, such as the Dry Corridor, a northeastern region hit by the lack of rains.
With information from Efe
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