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Gustavo Grobocopatel visited the headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in San José, Costa Rica, and left concepts on agriculture in the midst of a global crisis that triggered the price of agricultural commodities.
In the first place, the agricultural businessman, agronomist and international consultant stressed that the current situation should be seen as a starting point for the transformation of rural areas in the region.
“Latin America is extraordinary in many ways. There is an abundance of water, of land and there is a cultural tradition, because the people know how to work in the fields. There are no such things in other places in the world. This continent has a productive potential five or six times greater than the current one,” said Grobocopatel, who considered that the problems generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the recurrence of extreme weather events and the war in Eastern Europe will accelerate changes. in agriculture that were already being produced.
“The problems of globalization must be fought with the tools of globalization. One is regionalization; if we want to have weight in the world we must do it together. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean cannot be separated to face the complexity of what is coming: there is a new technological convergence that has to do with robotics, the Internet of things or nanotechnology, which is going to change the way of do agriculture”, anticipated Grobocopatel, who has been founder of the Argentine Chamber of Biotechnology and the Los Grobo Group and has advised different governments.
Self-defined as an entrepreneur and promoter of no-till farming, which he considers a tool for caring for the health of the soil, he is convinced that one of the transformations that will take place will be the growth of the bioeconomy, understood as a model of industrialization of the biological. "Today -he explained- we know that photosynthesis not only produces plants that serve as food but also as energy, as clothing or as medicine."
In this sense, he considered that the current crisis of availability and prices of chemical fertilizers, on whose importation Latin America is strongly dependent, will also help to make positive changes in this area: “In the search to be more efficient in the use of nutrients, which means finding the optimal contribution for each type of environment, we are going to have an agriculture with more bio-inputs. In five or ten years our production will be based on biofertilizers and biological phytosanitary products. That will be very good."
Regarding the urgencies posed by the current situation, the businessman affirmed that the fundamental purpose of governments must be to protect the most vulnerable populations: "Faced with the increase in food prices, the priority must be to help those who do not know if they are going to eat tonight. States must act with subsidies and other compensation mechanisms. This is a major grain supply crisis. Usually we have had supply crises linked to inclement weather, which are resolved quickly, but in this case we do not know how long it will take or how it will end, although I am confident that it will be resolved faster than we think, if we do not make mistakes that sometimes delay solutions”.
Grobocopatel also referred to the debate on how to produce more food that is healthier with the least possible use of natural resources and warned that agriculture cannot be separated from the environmental issue.
“The environment is in the body and soul of agriculture. It is not possible to solve any of the challenges of production if this process does not speak the same language as the environment and if it does not include the social”, he emphasized.
“The environmental and the social – he added – are part of any discussion and are what will make the process sustainable. Latin America, in environmental terms, has a lot done. For example, he incorporated land use planning, to know what to do and where to do it. Of course, my point of view is not naive either and I know that there are problems such as deforestation and chemical waste management. And we have a serious problem, which is that many people are left out of the system. The coming transformation will only be positive if we manage to do it with public policies that include and educate”.
Grobocopatel stressed that young people are going to get involved in agriculture “to the extent that the field is challenging in labor and human terms and offers another way of life. Technology and digitization are calling the new generations to work in the field and that is why there has to be a change of command in agricultural management.”
The need for a continental alliance
During the dialogue, the Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero, gave details of his recent participation in the Summit of the Americas, in which he called for the formation of a continental alliance to confront growing food insecurity. “Today food security is at the top of the world agenda and several countries on the continent are launching national plans to contain the crisis, with concrete measures to help the most vulnerable. At the Summit we stressed that, in this scenario, there must be financing for producers and a reinforcement of public-private dialogue to resolve the fertilizer crisis, knowing that countries like Argentina and Brazil import most of what they use”.
In this sense, Grobocopatel valued IICA's role, which he defined as "a house that one feels as one's own." “IICA – he pointed out – plays a very important role and can lead the regional integration and transformation agendas like no other organization, due to the legitimacy it has on the continent. It must lead the debate on the future of agriculture and direct the public discussion”.
Otero also stressed that there must be public policies aimed at attracting new generations, so that they see that the new agriculture is a true field of opportunities. “IICA – he pointed out – has science and technology at the center of its agenda, which are already transforming agriculture. They are the tools that are going to break down the barriers that separate the rural from the urban and attract young people.” → agrofy.com.ar
Automatic translation from spanish.
