Today, we talk about reforms as if they were a restaurant menu that we must change due to the dissatisfaction of the palate of diners, believing that the new chef of the Casa de Nariño has better seasoning to sweeten our lives with reforms to everything known, I wanted to bring my own and thus take advantage of the frenzy.

What do you think if we apply a reform to agricultural thinking in Colombia?

I am an agronomist engineer and my passion is to produce in the countryside, always looking for alternatives to raise the name of agriculture in Colombia. I have worked as a manager of various crops and I have seen how wealth and equity can be generated from entrepreneurial initiatives in the countryside.

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The road I have taken has shown me the need to change the way we think about what society knows as the agricultural sector, because in my opinion there are two versions of this story:

1. That of people who have forged great fortunes and contributed thousands of formal jobs and decent incomes to families in the countryside, while contributing to society in reducing poverty.
2. The vision in which everything that comes close to the countryside is synonymous with poverty and farmers lose their crops or have to give them away after hard work.

The latter is the most popular version among Colombians and is the reason why it is assumed almost without hesitation that the countryside equals poverty and inequality. This means that few people are interested in investing in this sector, which is so marginalized by our generalized thinking.

I believe the time has come to reform that thinking and see the countryside for what it really is: a source of abundance for this country. We must raise awareness of the opportunity we have in front of us. Therefore, we will discuss some figures and growth expectations that could transform the rural economy, changing the lives of millions of people in Colombia, creating thousands of jobs and supplying the imminent need for food for humanity.

Now, according to our latest National Agricultural Census, which we will talk about in a future publication, Colombia has 62.8 million hectares in natural forests and biosphere reserves, which is equivalent to 56.9% of the national area.

This makes us a reference and important country in the contribution of sustainability and generates a responsibility with the world to maintain and protect this area, which, by the way, is a mandatory task for the future of humanity.

According to the aforementioned source, we also have 43 million hectares with agricultural vocation and 2.4 million with non-agricultural use. What is revealing about these data is that we use less than 19% of our agricultural area to produce food. Although the figures vary, in Colombia we plant a little more than 7 million hectares of the 43 potential hectares without affecting the reserves.

Although comparisons are odious, for the reader’s understanding I will dare to make one, especially because of its relevance in the current context. Today, when we are thinking about the war between Russia and Ukraine and the impact it has caused on the economy, we highlight the strategic importance of Ukraine for the production of food and key inputs for agriculture.

According to data from the World Bank, Colombia has more agricultural potential than what is currently cultivated by Ukraine, but in this country 7 times more land is cultivated than in Colombia.

The metrics of the aforementioned bank show that Ukraine cultivates 32 million hectares annually and this makes it a power in the generation of food, to the point that they have affected the world economy thanks to their production capacity of wheat, corn and barley.

Can we imagine how relevant we would be if we took advantage of our potential? What if we reform our thinking and see agriculture as a possibility to be relevant in the contribution of food and wealth?

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Today we have more than 2.7 million farmers in Colombia, many of them marginalized from opportunities and from state, commercial and technical support, and practically alone they have managed to take advantage of a fraction of our potential. What if we develop a vision focused on strategic crops for humanity, where we focus production on growing superfoods that society demands today?

The world already has enough metrics on consumption, which we can use to our advantage to carry out agricultural planning that is focused on supplying that demand, reducing commercial uncertainty and the discontent of thousands of farmers who plant their fields without a north and are exposed to the low prices of their products and the shrewd minds of intermediaries who take advantage of the disorder to profit sometimes in a disproportionate and indolent way.

I invite you to analyze in detail the possibilities that our countryside offers, the lives that we could impact if we establish responsible agricultural projects, identifying markets that are willing and fair in terms of prices.

We have a young population that deserves an opportunity for decent work without leaving their townships, villages or municipalities, looking for a city dream that in most cases becomes a nightmare of unemployment, poverty, abuse and disillusionment.

Reforming the countryside is possible. I have lived it, but it is born from what we can do as a society and especially as experts in the sector; it is born through investment initiatives with an associative vision, in which marketers, producers and technicians are aligned with the purpose of creating millions of opportunities to combat inequalities and contribute to the country’s economy.

I invite society, investors and the State to decisively take the world of opportunities that we have literally at our feet, to be mindful that Colombia is an agricultural country and there should be no shame in it.

On the contrary, this is a real opportunity to generate foreign exchange and become a regional agricultural pantry, covering our food security in fair proportions and giving a look to the world to take advantage of the demand for good food that, thanks to our geography, we can produce all year round and in almost the entire national territory.

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