Colombia and IDH reinforce commitment to territorial agricultural development

In October, the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and IDH presented the territorial approach to increase productivity and consolidate sustainability in agricultural production in the Departments of Cesar, Magdalena and Huila. The announcement was made to partners of AgroColombia Productiva y Sostenible, a public-private alliance supported by the National Government, which mission is to identify, align and expand sustainable practices to foster agricultural development.

The Vice Minister for Agricultural Affairs, Marcela Urueña, said that “the commitment to IDH is to focus on the sustainable development of the productive chains and the territories where they operate, including productivity and competitiveness factors”. The productive chains to be prioritized are tropical fruit such as avocado and mango, as well as cocoa, palm and dairy/livestock.

"There is an opportunity for several of these products to expand in the domestic market and to conquer international markets, by taking advantage of free trade agreements already signed by Colombia," said the vice-minister.

The development of the actions will follow the successful approach implemented by IDH in Mato Grosso. “We want production chains to be driven within the concept of the Production, Protection and Inclusion (PPI) governance”, explains Daniela Mariuzzo, IDH’s Executive Director in Brazil. The partnership was presented to an audience that included Procolombia, Alqueria, Alpina, Nestlé, Fedepalma, SAC, TNC, Bayer and as special guests the Embassies of the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland and France.