Strengthen small farmers to comply with plan against inflation

The government has presented its plan against inflation based on three strategies and one of them is to increase grain production through programs such as Sowing Life y Production for Well-beingthe latter operated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), which implements a strategy that seeks to promote small farmers.

In accordance with Hector Manuel Robles Berlanga, General Director of Logistics and Food of Sader, historically, small producers had been relegated from the support plans for the countryside by the federal government and a negative perception had been created towards them; however, during this administration their work has been revalued under one idea: to produce food based on their capacities and possibilities.

“It is not enough to produce for the sake of producing and right now we are seeing more evidence that there is no need for this, but that we must produce in a sustainable way, with low carbon emissions, in a resilient way and with healthy food. covid crisis and the fertilizer crisis they are moving us to this type of agriculture and that is why we have to transform food systems, thinking about the rights of producers and of the whole society,” Robles Berlanga highlighted.

During the Cooperative Future Forumorganized by the DGRV in Mexico, the Sader official highlighted the importance of the small producer, since, for example, nine out of 10 producers in the country have spaces of up to 20 hectares, in addition to the fact that small and medium-sized agriculture contributes 54% of the value of the production of the 30 main crops.

“Small producers are generators of paid employment, not family ones, since 85% of the paid employment in this country is generated by small and medium-sized agriculture,” said the official, adding that the main commodities are also produced, for the most part, for them.

failed programs

Robles Berlanga indicated that, during past administrations, support for the countryside was concentrated on large producers, with hundreds of projects and a lot of money invested, but it is estimated that eight out of 10 programs created did not last even a year in operation and another 10% did not survive more than three years.

“It is a clear example that it is not enough to give money to give money, but that it has to do with a different meaning,” the official said.

According to Robles Berlanga, from this administration, it has been possible to incorporate nearly 700,000 new producers in the supports and who had never been considered in public policy.

In this context, the public policy carried out by Sader is based on the following principles:

• Food sovereignty.
• Need for food self-sufficiency, that is, depending less and less on the outside.
• Produce healthy food.
• Respond to the objectives of Sustainable Development and the Paris agreement, against climate change.

In this context, Robles Berlanga noted that the strategy to combat food inflation has to focus on producers generating their own supplies, since for a long time they became consumers.

“We are considering returning the capacity to producers to produce their own seeds, inputs, not fertilizers, but inputs that allow them to produce and bring them closer to short markets,” the Sader official said.

Robles Berlanga pointed out that this approach is not something new, rather it is an approach from many years ago, with a push for cooperative organization for the benefit of small and medium producers. “In this approach it has to be possible to reduce costs and increase productivity. This gives the producer more profitability.”

The government’s plan against inflation seeks to increase the grain production in two million tons.