Government and indigenous movement set up table for productive development

Indigenous leaders and Executive authorities meet this Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference (CEE), in Quito . During the meeting they will deal with the creation of public policies for the peasant sector at the productive development table.

This August 17, the productive promotion table was installed. The Minister of Agriculture will respond to seven concerns of the indigenous movement.

It is the fourth dialogue table that opens within the process and there is expectation on the part of the indigenous organizations.

Zenaida Yasacama , vice president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador ( Conaie ), told the press, before the meeting, that for this table there is a collective proposal collected from the peasant sector.

“Every day they are producing and they do not provide added value . We will precisely analyze the added value that can be given to these products. It is important to strengthen our productive matrix, that our products go to other places and have international recognition,” said the leader.

Yasacama avoided talking about the points in particular. However, he considered that “the State apparatus should create public policies and give alternatives to peasant producers . These proposals have already been presented, it is already a year in which the Government must have analyzed and we await a response,” he said when requesting that the productive promotion be applied in the peasant sectors of all the regions of the country.

On his side, Samuel Lema , leader of the Council of Evangelical Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador ( Feine ), stated that they also hope that the Government will present a proposal this Wednesday. Economic reactivation for community farmers is another of the requests that is within the general approach of the organizations.

In addition, he expressed that there is still concern, despite the fact that the methodology of the tables was modified to speed up the work.

Leandro Rodríguez , technician of the National Confederation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organizations ( Fenocin ), said that aspects related to the cost of production of products such as rice, potatoes, onions will be addressed . They will also request that, as with urea, the Government cover 50% of the price of all fertilizers used on the land.

Government will present proposals to organizations

Bernardo Manzano, Minister of Agriculture , showed the opening of his State Portfolio. “We come to talk and dialogue with them because it is important for agriculture and for the country to agree to improve. We have several programs underway and we want to socialize them.”

The Secretary of State pointed out that the objective of his Ministry is to work together to “improve, above all, family farming , which is what worries us the most.” He avoided advancing information on the proposal that he will present, however, he specified that there are seven questions asked by the organizations.

They are related to the protection of agriculture, questions about bananas, rice, royalties from flowers , about peasant family farming, about BanEcuador , credits and loans.

Regarding the reduction of the price of inputs for agriculture, he indicated that work is being done on subsidizing the cost of urea and also on the Seed Plan . The latter includes agrochemicals, herbicides and fungicides “to subsidize 50 to 70%, we have benefited more than 20,000 people.”

Regarding credits for agriculture, he stated that more than USD 94 million have been delivered to more than 34,000 people.