This Friday, May 3, the National Government, in alliance with the Association of Users of the Land Adaptation District (Asojuncal), allocated 13,095 million pesos to finance the construction of a rice mill in the municipality of Palermo (Huila).
20,865 square meters will be intervened for the construction of the rice mill, which also includes drying, storage, threshing and packaging equipment for the finished product.
The materialization of this project will positively impact 96 small and medium-sized producers and another 899 farmers from Palermo, Campoalegre, Neiva, Rivera and Yaguará with a technical system to enhance rice production.
“The Change program is being built here, but it has been built before by yourselves, the idea of industrializing the rice produced is fundamental,” said President Gustavo Petro.
“If we achieve it, the first decarbonized rice production area in Colombia, you have to know that what is done opens the world market for Colombian rice, a task that we all must do,” said the president.
“In the times of Carlos Lleras, perhaps it was enough to hand over the land and put it into production, today it is necessary for this agricultural production to be industrialized, we call that activity agroindustry, it is in our government program,” said President Petro.
In total, 20,865 square meters will be intervened for the construction of the rice mill, which also includes drying, storage, threshing and packaging equipment for the finished product.
Agrarian reform
From the municipality of Palermo, Huila, where President Petro presented to the community a rice processing plant project, the president pointed out that the Agrarian Reform is not only about handing over the land to the farmers.
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“In agrarian reform there can be no corruption, and there is a very delicate moment which is when you are going to buy land that a landowner is selling,” said the president.
“It is essential that the agrarian reform does not die, that it does not weaken for the reasons that, history has already told us, can weaken an agrarian reform,” he added.
“It is not enough to hand over the land, bare soil generates poverty, if there is no help, credit, an arm that allows the land to be produced,” the president explained.
“Land has a social and ecological function, it is not about having land for the sake of having it, that is even a crime. If what it is about is that the land produces and that one has the land to the extent that the capacity of capital allows it,” he pointed out.
