The Minister of Economy, Planning and Development, Pável Isa Contreras, said this Thursday that the Dominican Republic does not have sufficient data on the agricultural sector national, which prevents having “good” public policies towards the sector.
“I think that reflects the importance that we have given as a society to agriculture. If we do not have data it is because we are not paying attention to agriculture and we think it is not important, and it is extremely important. Without data there are no good policies, there is no way to make robust programs if we do not have good data”, expressed Isa Contreras when participating in the XXIII National Meeting of Leaders of the Agricultural sector“We Take Back the Future: Innovation and Sustainable Production for Food Security”, by the Dominican Agrobusiness Board.
In the activity, Isa Contreras highlighted the importance of bringing rural development to the public stage to place people at the center with agricultural transformation as a means.
Among the innovative policies, the Minister of Economy detailed the technological transformation, access to water, credit and markets, associativity and collaboration, and the issue of land to generate high-value crops.
He pointed out that the mission is about innovating to transform agriculture and rurality, for which he pointed out that overcoming agrarianism entails adopting a rural development perspective to put people at the center and the exercise of their rights, the construction of capacities and conceive the transformation of agriculture as a means.
“We have to overcome agrarianism in public policies. Agrarianism is concentrating on agriculture and production, which is an extremely important element, but we have to broaden the panorama, move from agrarianism to a perspective of rural development. That means putting people and the exercise of rights at the center”, he pointed out.
Also, he understands that the construction of human capacities must be put at the center. “Agriculture is the people who coordinate, manage and maintain farms,” he said.
He emphasized that attention must be paid to small-scale agriculture if the transformation of the agricultural sector Dominican. He assured that this can be achieved by facing the factors that constrain it so that they can make the technological leap and be more profitable and productive.
Regarding access to water resources, the minister referred to the Pact for Water, whose consultations in search of consensus have been organized by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, in its capacity as coordinator of the Water Sector Cabinet.
Minister Isa Contreras offered the information when giving the keynote speech “Innovate to transform agriculture and rurality”.
He expressed the importance of planned interventions from the territories for the active participation of communities and local leadership, and digital transformation as part of the process of change.
X-ray of agriculture
Isa Contreras made an X-ray of agriculture and its weight in the Dominican economy, which represents between 5 to 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 8 to 9% of total employment. Likewise, 27% of rural jobs and 5.7% of labor income.
In terms of foreign exchange, it represents 7% of total exports and 15% of national exports.
Regarding the sectoral profile, Isa Contreras explained that agriculture has 320,000 productive units, and 65% are agricultural; 30 million tasks (1.9 million hectares), 40% agricultural.
He pointed out the agricultural exploitations well distributed in the territory, very dominant small agriculture (land and work), and the medium size, in less than 100 tasks.
Likewise, it specified that the average size of farms is 60 tasks, and 65% is less than 40 tasks. He indicated that, despite the smallness, the production is very market-oriented.
He pointed out that the southwest of the country concentrates smaller units, the east the largest and only 23% of farms are constituted as companies.
Among the challenges facing the sector, the Minister of Economy cited the effects of climate change with an increase in the frequency of extreme hydrometeorological events, longer droughts, shock and impact on productivity.
