Eight proposals to guarantee food security in the Dominican Republic

With a view to promoting the expansion of the agricultural activity and ensure greater food production In the following years, more than 700 producers met at the XXVI National Meeting of Leaders of the Agricultural Sectora congress that culminated with eight proposals to guarantee the food security in the country.

This year, producers exchanged experiences and perspectives on what the agricultural sector to meet the demand of millions of Dominicans, tourists, immigrants and export markets.

The participants formed working groups at the end of the congress, reaching eight Recommendations which will be delivered to the Executive Branch, on how to guarantee the food security of the country for the coming years.

The proposals are:

1. To constitute a Food Security Investment Funda financial instrument managed by the Agricultural Bank “with reasonable terms and competitive interest rates.” In a joint statement, the producers suggested the issuance of a sovereign bond by the Ministry of Finance, with a 20-year maturity, to form this fund.
2. Strengthen and expand the agricultural insurance incorporating, in addition, a parametric insurance.
3. Accelerate the promulgation of a regulation of application for Law 368-22 of Territorial PlanningLand Use and Human Settlements, in order to delimit and conserve land with an agricultural vocation.
4. Introduce to the National Congress a project for legal and institutional reform of the agricultural sectorto update and review the legal framework of public institutions linked to this activity.
5. Incorporate 4 million tasks of lands to the production under irrigationaccompanied by an investment in dams, water distribution channels and pressurized irrigation infrastructure at the parcel level. They suggest requesting support from multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for this initiative.
6. Create a public-private working group to develop, within a period of six months, a country strategic plan to assess the impact of climate change in agriculture and livestock. The plan must include prevention and mitigation measures for the conservation of natural resources and the development of production under sustainable schemes. They recommend working hand in hand with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as well as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
7. Form a second working group with FAO and IICA to deliver to the Executive Branch, within a period of no more than six months, a national plan that encourages generational change in agricultural and livestock activities and in the industrialization of raw materials to create added value. They propose developing a program for the technical staff of public agricultural entities, accompanied by a pilot for outsourcing technical assistance to specialized private entities.
8. Open a fund, through the Agricultural Bank and encouraging private banking to participate, for the mechanization and automation of agricultural activitieswith the aim of optimizing agricultural work and reducing the use of unskilled labor.