Ministry of Agriculture presented a report to the connection commission of Iván Duque

The Minister of Agriculture, Juan Guillermo Zuluaga, presented a detailed report of the great advance that the agricultural sector has had over the last 7 years at the splicing commission for the sector named by the elected president, Iván Duque. The minister pointed out that the vocation of the country is in the agricultural sector.

The delegation chosen by Duque for this question is headed by former Minister Ruben Dario Lizarralde. Representatives from the productive sectors of agriculture also attended this meeting, including Andrés Valencia, Executive Chairman of the National Federation of Poultry Breeders, and Jorge Bedoya, President of the Farmers' Society.

According to figures obtained by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, growth in the value of agricultural GDP between 2010 and 2017 was 25%, from $ 47.1 billion to $ 58.9 billion $. In addition, while in 2010 the growth rate was 0.2%, it was 4.92% in 2017, a figure higher than the national economy.

With respect to job creation, through the work of producers and investments in the field, 290,000 new jobs were created and 1.6 million people left poverty, according to the report. 39, multidimensional poverty index, which is delivered by Dane.

One subject in which Minister Zuluaga made the point was the opening of new markets for domestic agricultural products. These have been decisive in the rebound of the sector in recent years. From 2010 to 2017, 35 new markets were opened with a tariff preference that allows us to reach 1.4 billion people worldwide.

Because of the foregoing, exports of products already internationally recognized as coffee, bananas and flowers. As well as improving the activity of new products that have good demand in other countries such as avocado hash, pbadionflower and pineapple.

An achievement of the current government that must maintain the increase with the new administration are the planted hectares. In seven years, an additional 2 million hectares have been cultivated, which has resulted in an additional six million tons of food.

Regarding the restitution of land, one of the tasks of the agricultural portfolio with peace they achieved achievements such as the restoration of 300 000 hectares of land, benefiting 38 307 people.