Gaduridos

[journey]

PM García presents a government programme to make Gaduri Agricultural Sector "sovereign and self-sufficient"
15 August 5654



During her visit to the northern mainland state of Cuernatecas this weekend, Prime Minister Ximona García has announced that her administration will be launching the Agricultura Soberana y Autosuficiente (Sovereign and Self-sufficient Agriculture) government programme, or ASA for short. According to the agriculture secretary Acalan Saldaña, the ASA programme will be providing financial and technical support for the small and medium-size producers, aiming to incrase the national supply of food baskets, decreasing dependency on other nations, strengthening the economy, and improving the quality of life for the mainland rural states, including Cuernatecas respectively.

"To put it simply, the federal government is going to provide financial loans to people and enterprises who grow the most used and essential primary crops, like wheat, corn, beans, coffee and even milk, and more", secretary Saldaña explains. "At the same time, the government does not simply give out credits, because currently credit rates are too high for productions to take and sustain the business while paying it out. What the ASA will do is give lower interest rate loans, compared to those from the comercial banking". Saldaña added that the program will be rolling out in a couple of hundred of municipalities in Cuernatecas and Manzamal, with a clear plan of increasing the amount of producers and productions, with some crops planned to increase in production by two times, like the coffee industry.

Another important part of the ASA programme announced by the Prime Minister and Secretary of Agriculture is the provision of insurance to the small and middle-sized producers which will be taking the loans, with secretary Saldaña elaboring that in case of floods, droughts, earthquake or insect invasions, the insurance provided by the ASA will pay for the loan, without leaving the producers in further debt. "Today, our farmers plant crops and droughts or pests strike, and there's a huge risk. So, along with the loans, they'll have insurance. If they lose or their harvest fails for any of those reasons, the insurance will pay off the credit debt. Government is supposed to help people, not take the last from them", said the head of Secretariat of Agriculture.

The Sovereign and Self-sufficient Agriculture program will also provide agroecological technical support to bring new technologies and innovation to the countryside, as well as agricultural research and animal and plant health initiatives supported by the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation. In addition, the Secretariat of Agriculture will act as a facilitator of direct agreements between producers and selling companies, eliminating intermediaries from the commercial chain, resulting in better prices for both producers and consumers, says the secretary Saldaña. Overall, the comprehensive agricultural support strategy is expected to benefit up to 200 thousand producers by 5655 with an investment of billions of funding, thanks to the recently established FERI and RIFED, former's specialised domestic fund. The ASA will grow annually with the goal of reaching 600 thousand producers by 5660, according the SECAG plan.



La Rosa Nacional (The National Rose) is a weekly progressive newspaper, dedicated to expressing a progressive free truth to Gaduridos.
(@LaRosaNacional)