Post date: 2024-05-05 11:13:36
Among the proposals presented by Governor Rodrigo Villalba to President Gustavo Petro, the following stand out: the improvement of tertiary roads, the implementation of agrarian reform, construction of the fertilizer plant, energy reconversion of small and medium-scale irrigation districts, Coffee freeze-dried plant, among other topics aimed at strengthening the agricultural sector.
2024-05-05 11:13:36
During the recent visit of President Gustavo Petro to the Municipality of Palermo to begin the construction project of the Rice Industrialization Plant, the governor of Huila Rodrigo Villalba highlighted the benefits of the department, as a potential producer of food and rural tourism, and that In the future, it could become a pioneer in the generation of alternative energies, for which the Productive and Social Planning Plan for Rural Property is a key planning instrument for the development of the territory, and allows the region to be ready for implementation. of public agroindustrialization policy.
Delving into what was expressed by President Gustavo Petro, about the great opportunity that countries like Colombia have in food production, the leader of the Huilenses highlighted the comparative advantages of the department due to its geographical location, which today allow it to stand out at the level national in several productive lines.
“Huila is the largest producer of coffee, about 20% of the national production comes from this department, in tilapia we produce about 40% of the national production, being the largest exporter in the country, and the third line of the department’s economy. It is rice, so you are here arriving in a purely rural department,” he expressed.
Improvement of tertiary roads
The governor of Huila took the opportunity to make an outline of the projects that are relevant to the department in terms of productivity, where without a doubt the improvement of tertiary roads is key to development, which is why he proposed to President Gustavo Petro to work in a articulated with the municipalities to move in that direction.
“The main challenge of the productive sector of Huila is the roads, mainly rural roads, which are the responsibility of the municipalities, but the nation and the department also participate. I have proposed to the Ministry of Highways a co-financing of the national government, departmental government, we will put in good money if they accept that model; municipalities, community action boards, and we can link the coffee growers with grassroots committees, municipal committees, and the execution is defined in the agreement itself, I am not interested in the government being, I want there to be a pilot in that conjunction of efforts on tertiary roads,” indicated the governor of Huila.
Agrarian reform
Another of the topics presented during the visit of President Gustavo Petro, to the municipality of Palermo, and which is in line with the National Development Plan, was the need to advance in the implementation of the agrarian reform, where there are already some initial commitments to the next 90 days from the National Land Agency, and where there is great interest on the part of the Government of Huila in matters of formalization of rural properties, for which two draft ordinances are already being processed in the Departmental Assembly, aimed in granting exemptions in the payment of taxes to the department for the beneficiaries of the rural property regularization programs.
Strategic projects in productive matters
Without a doubt, one of the strategic projects that the department of Huila is betting on, and where the union of efforts is expected where the national government converges, is the fertilizer plant, which would allow the use of minerals and reduce production costs in the sector. agricultural, as stated by Governor Rodrigo Villalba.
“Here there is already a crushing and calcining plant for this product, we still need to reach the fertilizer plant, president Huila is the first producer of phosphorite and second of dolomite in the country, very important raw materials for the production of fertilizers. A fertilizer plant here cries out, and the main cluster is in this same area, and it would contribute a lot to us in agroindustrialization as a national government policy,” he indicated.
The governor of Huila also highlighted the importance of working on projects to continue catapulting Huila coffee growing, such as the construction of micro-processing plants that allow the assurance of the quality of the coffee, the construction of the grain freeze-drying plant in a joint effort with the nation, and the construction of the Coffee University, as a great desire of the people of Huila that will contribute to the formation of human capital, to continue strengthening this value chain.
Likewise, he stressed the need to carry out energy conversion of small and medium-scale irrigation districts that operate with conventional energy, and are dedicated to the production of rice with water pumping, such as Asojuncal, in Palermo; San Borja and Asoporvenir, from the Municipality of Villavieja; La Floresta, in Yaguará; Asotriángulo and Asosantabárbara, in the Municipality of Tesalia.
Among the initiatives in which progress is also required is the mechanization of soils with the provision of banks of specialized machinery, construction of a multimodal port in the Betania Dam in the Seboruco sector, legalization of the Pangasius fish, and of course completing the second phase of the rice processing plant in the municipality of Palermo.
At the close of the meeting with President Gustavo Petro, the governor of Huila Rodrigo Villalba delivered a book with the entire compendium on the productive and social organization of rural property, indicating that Huila is an ally of the National Development Plan.
