Sustainable development: Indap held an International Seminar "Agroecology and sustainability for peasant family agriculture"
With the participation of the Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Furche, and a score of national and foreign academics and experts, the International Seminar "Agroecology and Sustainability for Family Farming Farming" was held on March 25 Wednesday at the premises of the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center , GAM, in Santiago de Chile.
The initiative was organized and carried out by the Institute of Agricultural Development, Indap, and the Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies, Odepa.
Claudia Carbonell, director of the latter organization noted that "This seminar aims to become an instance of discussion and dialogue on agroecology and sustainable production, with the aim that in the medium term, this way of doing agriculture can be integrated and extend its practice to traditional agricultural activity".
For his part, Minister Carlos Furche, who inaugurated the meeting, put the emphasis on agroecology, assuring that "It means a new way of doing agriculture, not only in the introduction of some isolated technologies, but also an integral, new way of re-linking ourselves with natural resources and with their productive potential.".
The Seminar covered topics such as: Fundamentals of agroecology; public policies and sustainability; sustainable production and market articulation; fair trade certification in the productive alliance, among others.
Each topic was closed by discussion panels composed of representatives of various actors, such as the national, regional and technical authorities of Indap and Odepa, together with representatives of environmental organizations and sustainable agricultural development and national and international academics, highlighting the participation by Gerardo Wijnant, Director of the Pro-qualitas Fair Trade Project; Jaime Rodriguez, Director of the Department of Agrarian Economy of the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences of the University of Chile; Patricio Rodrigo, Executive Director of Chile Ambiente Corporación; Rodrigo de la Barra, Director of the Remehue Experimental Station, INIA; Clara Nicholls, Professor of Sustainable Rural Development, at UC Berkeley; and Miguel Altieri, academic at UC Berkeley, expert in agroecology.
Minister Furche took the opportunity to emphasize that "The Chilean agro-food sector will be one of the most dynamic during 2015, with growth between 5% and 6%, and it is highly foreseeable that this favorable cycle will continue. But at the same time we are in a moment where frailties and threats become very evident. Yesterday, President Michelle Bachelet announced a massive plan to combat the drought, from guaranteeing drinking water to supporting farmers who are affected by the drought. What this panorama shows us is that there is actually a more fundamental change that has to do with the effects of climate change and among the many consequences is the fragility of ecosystems"Explained the minister and added that"These problems that must be addressed in the short term generate challenges in the definition of public policies for the medium and long term. That is why this Agroecology seminar is very important, because what we need from the public sector, with appropriate policies, as well as from the private sector, is to gather and understand that we need an agriculture that takes advantage of and maximizes all the opportunities that arise, making it an inclusive way delivering opportunities to both small and medium producers".
Octavio Sotomayor, national director of Indap, finally commented that "Our institution wants to reflect on the type of agriculture that we are promoting. We want to send a clear and strong signal in the sense that in Indap we want to produce a change".
Source: Blueberrieschile.cl
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