Pacify the countryside, prioritizing the lemon zone of Apatzingan, Michoacanand elevate the prohibition of corn cultivation to constitutional status transgenic in Mexico and its human consumption direct are the others priorities of this six-year term for the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (It fits), in addition to eradicating poverty and achieving food sovereignty in the nation.
In an interview, Julio Berdegué Sacristán, new head of the organization, pointed out that President Claudia Sheinbaum is “concerned” about the security issues that hurt the rural sector, which is why in this first year of government the violence faced by producers , farmers and day laborers will be attended to with the pacification plan presented by the Secretariat of Citizen Security.
The agronomist also announced that Sader will seek “for the Constitution to say that the cultivation of transgenic corn in Mexico is prohibited.” and direct human consumption and there is no more policy than that” to defend this position during the next review of the T-MEC.
Providing labor rights to day laborers, releasing water for the countryside and cities, producing more for national use and addressing climate change are other agendas that are already being addressed.said:
— Are there bigger challenges than achieving food sovereignty and eradicating poverty? What are they and how does the Ministry of Agriculture plan to face them?
—We still have a lot of poverty, even extreme poverty in the countryside, although there was very strong progress in the Government of former President López Obrador and we have this other very important challenge that just over two million day laborers are in a vulnerable condition, without labor rights, so the whole issue of well-being is very important.
The second is water. In agriculture we use 75% of the water in Mexico, so we have to modernize the use of water.
A third challenge is production. We are a great producing country, but we still need our daily diet to depend less on imports.
— In recent years, organized crime extortions against day laborers and small producers have increased. Is there a plan to protect this sector?
— There are rural areas of the country where we do have important security issues, and, in some cases, even alarming. We have the plan that Secretary Omar García Harfuch presented, which is the plan for the entire country, urban and rural, and when he presented the priorities (…) he said one very important thing: that the lemon area of Apatzingán will be attended to.
— Another issue that hurts the countryside is climate change, how is Sader going to face it?
— Climate change is not future, it is present. We are very worried. So, of course there are programs, the modernization of irrigation, for example, which is a historic program due to its size, since it has directly to do with adaptation to climate change.
We also bring a very important program with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to stop deforestation.
—We are clear about the government’s position regarding the planting, distribution and consumption of genetically modified corn, but how are they going to defend it during the review of the T-MEC?
— The President’s position is that Mexico, in the national territory, will not produce transgenic corn, neither white, nor yellow, nor red, nor blue, nor in any color. We do not want genetically modified corn. For what reason? Because Mexico is the country of origin and where the 64 races of native corn still exist, about those native corn they say: “ah, they are not very productive”, (but) their value lies in the fact that this is the world genetic reserve of the corn.
CT