Regional food production should be an opportunity for all farmers (ENGLISH)

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Thus, the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay, Engineer Tabaré Aguerre, spoke on his lecture "The region: A sustainable producer of food for the world”, during the closing conference of the 1st South American Forum of Agriculture - CAS 2013, which ended today in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil.

In this regard, the minister indicated that the competitive integration of all small farmers may only be made through public policies but these should not be conceived as mere social plans. In this sense and considering the opposition between family farming and agribusiness, Aguerre encouraged the attendance not to divide reality as he considered that the great opportunity that the region has in front of its eyes must also be a great chance for all small farmers.

To end, Aguerre identified the challenges the region is currently facing in terms of agricultural production: intensification with care of natural resources, competitive integration of family farmers, and getting ready to deal with climate change. To overcome these challenges, the official proposed to employ a triple strategy that involves producing more food paying special attention to food security, and reducing poverty; minimizing greenhouse gas emissions per unit and build resilience (which is the ability of an environment to resume its natural conditions after human intervention), thus reducing vulnerability to climate change.