Berdegué: the 4T returned dignity and hope to Mexican farmers

Daniel González Delgadillo

La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 26, 2024, p. 8

In the next six years of government, President Claudia Sheinbaum will work on agri-food matters in the search to continue the reduction of extreme poverty in rural areas, increase national production in the food supply, increase the efficiency of water use and accelerate the ecological transition, by facing the challenges experienced in the countryside, said the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), Julio Berdegué Sacristán, in an interview with The Day.

This policy has really been worked on with the President, and we have had multiple meetings since the campaign, not only to inform her, and we have sat down to talk about the issues. She has been interested in knowing well why we want to do certain things, what we propose, what the alternatives are and, of course, she has very clear ideas from her career.explained the secretary.

On the second floor of the Fourth Transformation, he confirmed that, starting next January 1, they will increase the basic products most consumed by Mexicans, through the new Harvesting Sovereignty and Food for Well-being programs, with beans, corn, onion, tomato, chili, wheat, sorghum, rice, cocoa, coffee and milk, which are mainly developed by small and medium-sized agriculture, with the intention of benefiting this sector and achieving food sustainability points.

He announced that only Cosechando Soberanía will increase these inputs in 155 municipalities with high levels of poverty and with production potential during the first 100 days of the following year. In the morning of the town this Tuesday it was estimated that at the six-year level the project will cover 1,175 municipalities and benefit 536,000 producers.

To achieve these goals, he highlighted that he will also be the improvement of the Sembrando Vida programs, run by the Ministry of Welfare, and those managed by Sader: Guarantee Prices, Bienpesca, Production for Wellbeing and Fertilizers for Wellbeing, all created during the government of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In these last two alone there are 2 million small producers benefiting, almost 75 percent of the national registry.

There are elements of continuity, the most important thing about this point is the fact that the president not only reduced poverty, but, perhaps more in the long term, in the importance we will see: he restored dignity and hope to the peasants of Mexicohe highlighted.

There will be a new approach

Given the effects of climate change, he confirmed that there will be a focus on studies on crop soils and on the production of new seeds genetically adaptable to new terrain.

Which is a very main factor why we cannot increase production: because we have very old varieties and seeds, there is no constant production of good quality of them adapted to the new conditions, the new temperatures, the humidity; only here there is less waterhe explained.

For this purpose, the Welfare Seed Producer will be created, which will be installed in Zacatecas, and 763 thousand hectares will be cultivated with certified seeds of high genetic quality, such as black and pinto beans. To address the problem of self-sufficiency of this seed, he proposed that Mexico consumes one million tons a year, of which we import 300 thousand and the goal is to produce them here.

Regarding non-transgenic white corn, Berdegué reiterated: We are already self-sufficient, and we must continue to be so. That’s a red line. We do not want to depend on anyone for the production of our non-transgenic white corn, which is the center of our diet, as well as a very important cultural element for us, Mexicans.. On the same morning he planned to reduce the price of tortillas by 10 percent in real terms during the six-year term, through a national agreement.

He added that support for fertilizers for some 2 million producers will continue, and in this administration he will seek the application of biofertilizers, and we are interested in promoting that because it can be a very strong, very powerful alternative, especially, for example, for farmersbecause they are made with natural resources and are biodegradable.

A very characteristic hallmark of our President is the importance of the environment and climate change. She has insisted to me a lot: we must put this agenda at the center of what the secretariat does, and we are going to do it with great responsibility, but also ambitiously, with dialogue between the actors, seeking agreements among all, but we do want to move very quick the agendahe pointed out.

He highlighted that in the national water plan, which the president will announce soon, “we are accompanying the National Water Commission, and it has many dimensions because it is not only the agricultural part or the modernization of irrigation, it is the use of water in the municipalities, treatment plants, water reuse. There will be a legislative agenda on the matter, too.

He pointed out that if the water crisis is addressed as a matter of national security, there must be a stewardship of the State, and that requires certain legislative changes.

As the merger of Segalmex with Diconsa, he said that the Bienestar stores will open, and we are currently doing all the legal processes to create themas part of the Food for Wellbeing program. Your work will be continue distributing food to more than 20 million people at reduced prices through this huge network of storeswhich will begin with the sale of coffee, cocoa and honey already processed for consumption.

Regarding cases of corruption in Segalmex, he emphasized: “All the processes initiated since the government of President López Obrador, and that continue to this day, to recover everything that was stolen or poorly done, continue. We are not sweeping anything under the rug here. We will continue with all processes until we recover all the resources that should never have been used as they were.