The Rural Development Agency (ADR) will finance 18 projects in 11 departments of Colombia valued at more than 120 billion pesos (about 29 million US dollars or 26 million euros) to replace illicit coca plantations with cocoa and other food crops
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The president of the ADR, Luis Alberto Higuera, reported this Monday in a press conference that these projects are intended to territories affected by armed conflict, violence, inequality or state neglect and rural areas.
On the occasion of the month of Agrarian Reform and the two years of Government of President Gustavo Petro, the ADR proposes “recovering the dignity of the peasant sector” and transform the Colombian countryside.
Among the projects, one stands out that will be carried out in Putumayo (south), with an investment of 34.980 million pesos (about 8.4 million dollars or 7.7 million euros), the “elderly” so far in the history of the Agricultural Development entity, Higuera added.
The 18 projects are distributed in the departments of Putumayo (south), Nariño (south), César (north), Risaralda (center), Arauca (east), Magdalena (north), Tolima (southwest), Cauca (southwest), Córdoba (north), Meta (center) and Caquetá (south) and include plantations of coconut, coffee, cocoa, corn, fruits, vegetables, and beekeeping, fishing, and piangüera industries.
“Our vision is restorative and reforming,” explained the president of the ADR, who recalled that Putumayo was “especially affected by the paramilitary conflict” where 90% of the victims are families who grew coca.
This project will benefit 626 families from 14 organizations from different municipalities in the department.
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Farmers
Livestock, irrigation and peace
In addition to replacing illegal crops with legal plantations, The ADR seeks to reduce the areas of cattle farmingconverting them into sustainable livestock farms and replacing some land with food crops.
On the other hand, investments include improvements in irrigation and drainage channels in four departments of the country and aid to families of women, victims or ethnic peoples in the regions of San Andrés and Catalina and Providencia (Caribbean), intended for the fishing sector.
The president of this agency highlighted the work of the entity in the absolute investment of its budget, which in 2024 is 600,000 million pesos (about 144 million dollars or 132 million euros), and the development of 85 projects so far this year, 18 in the month of August alone.
Cattle raising.
Agrarian reform
One of the proposals of the Petro Government in its reformist agenda is agrarian reform, with which it seeks a better distribution of land in the country, which Historically it has been one of the structural causes of the conflict.
However, progress on this reform is almost non-existent and, although the National Land Agency (ANT) has increased the delivery of land to victims of the conflict, the land courts remain saturated and land restitution rulings have been delayed for decades.
At the beginning of June, the National Peasant Agenda (ANC), representing the union, published a letter addressed to President Petro in which he announced the national peasant mobilization due to the lack of compliance with the agreements between the State and the peasants.
Last July, peasants from all over the country peacefully occupied the headquarters of the Rural Development Agency in Bogotá to demand progress on agrarian reform, and they are still camped out in the facilities to this day.
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EFE
