The road map with which businessmen and the Government look to the four departments that make up the Orinoquia in leaders of agricultural production and environmental protection, contributing to the strengthening of the peasant economy and the improvement of the quality of life of the population is ready. It is about Mission Orinoquia, a plan that the companies gathered in the Business Association for the Development of Orinoquia (Asorinoquia) presented to the National Government and which contemplates 12 strategic axes around which the management of the public and private sectors must be articulated.

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The axes proposed in said roadmap are: strengthening the peasant economy; well-being of the population; citizen and legal security; land for all; increase in agricultural productivity; sustainable and regenerative livestock; animal protein chain; forest clusters; ecotourism; increase in exports; infrastructure, energy transition.

«Mission Orinoquia intends to be a roadmap with specific goals, action plan, schedule, measurement indicators and responsible for significantly increasing food production to achieve food sovereignty, promote policies that favor the protection and conservation of ecosystems, and improve the quality of life of Colombians”, says Clara Leticia Serrano, executive director of the Association .

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The purpose, say the businessmen, is to turn Orinoquia into a development pole with social inclusion and associative models that strengthen the peasant economy and improve the population’s quality of life.

potential producer

According to Asorinoquía, four of the departments that make up the Orinoquia (Arauca, Casanare, Meta and Vichada) add up to an area of ​​254,335 km2, equivalent to 22 percent of the national territory. Even so, only last year the region produced about 4 million tons of food, enough food to feed the entire population of Bogotá for one year and three months.

The lands of this Colombian region produce oil palm, rice, corn, soybeans, bananas, coffee, cassava, orange, lemon, passion fruit, rubber, watermelon, pineapple, avocado, papaya, cane, cocoa, and cashew, among many others.

It is also a territory where the cattle industry has flourished for decades. About 46 percent is allocated to this, land that could be used more efficiently to significantly increase food production to achieve food sovereignty. «It is there where various practices in force in the region also become very relevant, such as cattle and pig farming with a sustainable and regenerative approach, and regenerative agriculture,» he warned from the union.

Similarly, they point out that this is one with a clear tourist vocation, which takes advantage of the potential of nature through the offer of activities such as the region bird watching and ecological routes. However, for this sector to be competitive and efficient, it is necessary to optimize the road and hotel infrastructure, in addition to health services.

metaproposals

Among the objectives pursued by Misión Orinoquia are the commitment of businessmen in the region to continue and expand their projects, increase their own investments and attract new investors (national and international), continue to improve the quality of life of the participating communities, be relevant in Total Peace and in the economic and social development of the country.

The initiative, say the union’s directives, is aligned with the government’s agricultural policy and is in tune with the pillars of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda for 2030.

Also, it conforms to the bases of the National Development Plan to convert Colombia into a world potential for life.: contemplates the ordering of the territory around the water; human security and social justice; The right to food; reindustrialization and transformation towards diversified and clean productive activities; the restoration of ecosystems and environmental areas strategically; the insertion of the regions in global value chains; the sustainable and responsible development of tourism, and the improvement of rural housing, among other specific objectives.

Asorinoquia, which has been socializing this initiative, brings together 19 private companies and organizations of different sizes and economic activities aligned with the purpose of «Contributing to the equitable, sustainable and sustained development of the territory.» Its activities are concentrated on three fronts: infrastructure, environment and social welfare.