Much will be written about the new Chilean Minister of Agriculture from now on, because she is young, because her life is linked to the field, or because of her extensive academic and professional curriculum, but the first thing to note is that she is the first National Director of the Office of Agrarian Studies and Policies (Odepa) elected by competition, in the Senior Public Management system (ADP), a position that he assumed on August 31, 2018, and that he is now leaving to assume his new responsibility as Minister of Agriculture.

María Emilia Undurraga is an Agronomist with a major in Agrarian Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), a Master in Sociology (PUC) and a Master in International Development Policies from Duke University.

Between 2011 and 2014, he worked at the Institute for Agricultural Development (INdap) in charge of territorial programs that throughout Chile serve more than one hundred thousand farmers with technical and investment support. In this institution, he led the elaboration of the National Rural Development Policy.

Among his tasks, he represented the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture (Minagri) in the negotiation with the indigenous peoples of the decree that regulates indigenous consultation, which operationalizes ILO Convention No. 169. She also participated as a representative of Chile in international cooperation missions in Peru and Costa Rica and was a Chilean delegate to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on rural territorial policies.

Before her appointment as National Director of Odepa, the new minister served as an academic and researcher associated with the Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering of the PUC, participating in different projects, such as a Strategic Territorial Pole with FIA funds, among others.

In past conversations, the recently appointed Minister Undurraga pointed her gaze to the international arena as a source of strategic development for the Chilean agricultural industry, and appealed to the various industry players to channel all the information through the Ministry of Agriculture and state agencies. efforts to diversify business opportunities for Chilean products:

"Chilean agriculture is open to the world and it is essential to support the Ministry in the international strategy that includes the necessary market openings to diversify the opportunities for farmers in our country," he declared at the time, so it could be expected that his The mandate will be aimed at strengthening the industrialization of the sector and advancing in the search for new international markets for Chilean agricultural products.