The appearance of the Coronavirus brought along a large challenge regarding the food sourcing of the department of Antioquia, showing the importance of the agricultural sector and the pride of a territory with agro-producers who are harvesting the best quality produce of the country.
Antioquia is the second most important region in Colombia, with great potential derived from its biodiversity, geographical position, climate, cultural wealth and productive apparatus. It has a population of 6,550,206 inhabitants and is composed of 9 subregions and 125 municipalities, including its capital, Medellín.
The Secretary of Departmental Agriculture Rodolfo Correa announced the initiation of the East Technological Development Poles works, which will bring with them state-of-the-art greenhouses for this subregion and will contribute recovery and expected economic growth of the department. The head of the agriculture portfolio welcomed this new infrastructure: “With the construction of the agro-technological citadels, Antioquia will have for the first time, state-of-the-art technology in indoor harvests. This will increase the productivity of sectors such as tomato harvesting by more than 700%, from collecting 6 kilos per square meter to 45; this is a milestone in Colombian agriculture and a substantial improvement in the productivity of associations in the region”.
The agro-technological citadels, in addition to having greenhouses, will have everything necessary for the people of the East subregion to start all transformation processes and added value in agriculture. “The agro-technological citadels will bring progress to the department. In addition to greenhouses, the infrastructure has everything necessary for products from Antioquia to arrive to international markets with the highest quality levels,” said Rodolfo Correa Vargas. “Food does not grow in the supermarket shelves; we need to strengthen the agricultural sector and bring technology to our farmers”.
With this bet, the Government of Antioquia headed by Governor (E) Luis Fernando Suárez begins to fulfill one of the pillars of the Development Plan “Unidos por la Vida”, and the Secretariat of Agriculture led by Rodolfo Correa, brings progress to the territory so that Antioquia starts to become Colombia’s agricultural reference for the world.
Source: ACI Medellín