The president of the National Association of Agricultural Professionals (ANPA), Víctor Hugo Hernández, assured that he will manage a salary increase, pensions and appointments for agronomists who are going through great calamities.
He stated that these achievements are the greatest aspirations of agronomists “that is why since we took office we have set out to achieve these goals so that the members of the sector can rest assured.”
He said that the majority of agronomists have been working the land for more than 30 years and are more than 60 years old, so they are eligible as established by law for their retirement, aspiring to receive a decent pension.
In addition, he said that they aspire to a salary increase that today is around 50 thousand pesos in the State and that his management will ask the Government to bring it to 70 thousand pesos per month.
“We as ANPA also aspire for the Government to have more than 500 appointments of new agronomists because if we aspire to pension more than a thousand, it is directly providing that they appoint 500,” he said.
He added “we aspire to these three demands in our management, pension, appointments and salary increase for our agronomist members who are responsible for making the fields produce.”
He affirmed that they are betting on dialogue and coordination with the government authorities to achieve those achievements that the members of the ANPA.
“So far we have very good relations with the authorities; For two years we have developed a dialogue table that I had to coordinate, we have always worked with the open attitude of the Minister of Agriculture, Limbert Cruz, and what corresponds now is to apply those agreements reached at that dialogue table,” he pointed out.
He highlighted that with this agenda they will begin a roadmap with the authorities to apply these agreements and to give agronomists the demands they aspire to and that are recorded in said agreements.
He pointed out that the sector suffers from good working conditions, so his management will seek to change that situation through the claims that its members have longed for for years.
“This situation has caused a significant drop in the integration of new young people to study agronomy at universities, which is affecting the sector,” he pointed out.
He also stated that among his plans is to rescue the work and importance of the role played by the ANPA professional in food production and the achievements that the agricultural sector exhibits with a food self-sufficiency of 92%.
He indicated “This sector contributes 4.6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which creates more than 400 thousand jobs, which produces more than 370 million quintals of food per year and these achievements are based on the knowledge of the agricultural professional.”
Budget
The president of the National Association of Agricultural Professionals (ANPA), Víctor Hugo Hernández assured that this institution operates with an annual budget of around 20 million pesos contributed by fees from members who work in various institutions related to the area.
He said that monthly they have to manage on average 1.6 million pesos per month, considered pyrrhic and at the same time ensuring that the ANPA does not manage State resources.
He said that the union has more than eight thousand members, of which four thousand are active, about two thousand are pensioned and retired and others are in passive service, who do not participate in the activities of the sector.
The agricultural sector does not have a large budget as other State institutions have, for example: the Ministry of Education has more than 300 billion pesos, Public Health has a budget of more than 150 billion, while Agriculture only It has been allocated 18 billion pesos, which it divides among 17 State institutions.
“Of that 18 billion pesos, you only have 9 billion pesos to manage, which is equivalent to 50%; the other resources must be transferred to Inespre, the Agricultural Bank, IAD, the Tobacco Institute, the Coffee Institute, the Institute of the Grape, among others.”
He said that this budget allocation is insufficient and that they aspire for it to be raised to 35 billion so that the Ministry of Agriculture meets the demands of the agronomists.
