After her time at the Foundation for the Overcoming of Poverty and as gender manager of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Colchagüina sociologist Fernanda Azócar Rodríguez, was selected by the Senior Public Management system as director of Indap Ñuble, a position that remained untenured for more than a year, until the beginning of July.
With the focus on valuing the local peasant heritage, the vineyards, rural tourism, the promotion of short marketing circuits and the promotion of agroecology, the professional maintained that “Ñuble is a region very rich in heritage, there are still peasants who work in this way of life, I believe that there is a value that is very rich and that makes us ask ourselves what development model we want as a region”.
What happened to you with the results of Casen 2022 in Ñuble?
Two things happened to me. One, that I am pleased that poverty is being reduced at the national and regional level as well. In fact, multidimensional poverty in Ñuble decreases. However, income poverty shows you an economic model that depends a lot on jobs and that asks a lot from lack, from what we lack. And I also ask the reverse question: what do we have as a region? We are also very rich, because we have cultural heritage, our orchards, our vineyards, we have food, products that allow us to have a regional pantry. And we also have a lot of know-how, which is unique at the national level, one sees the neighboring regions with which one tends to compare oneself by the productive matrix and we have certain particularities, we are highly more rural, that is, I go to the Colchagua Valley and I see a wine industry that has a different mode of behavior and a value that does not take the patrimonial.
If one looks at O’Higgins’ figures and compares them with Ñuble, one wonders, what gaps do we have so that people in the countryside can improve their income?
The O’Higgins Region, its productive matrix is dual. It has mining and it has agriculture. And there one can look at certain things that are virtuous and others that are negative. In the case of Maule, there is a lot of industry, where there are also seasonal job offers, but it is also dual, although the working conditions are not always the most ideal. On the other hand, here in the Ñuble Region, we probably don’t have such a consolidated agribusiness, so I think there is an opportunity.
A chance of what?
An opportunity to be dual, harmonious. Because in O’Higgins, it is always pointed out that it is much more exposed to agrochemicals, as a result of this explosive increase in agribusiness that was disproportionate at some point, because they talked about Chile as an agrifood powerhouse, we looked outwards and promoted agro-exports and that it also generates negative externalities and that here is probably a little more sheltered from that. Here security for food sovereignty is very important, that we can consume food that we provide ourselves and that is why I speak of the Ñuble pantry.
But we go to the market and buy products from Arica or Peru.
That is why it is so important to consume seasonal food, which is also a measure launched by the Ministry of Agriculture. For example, if we eat tomatoes in winter, we know that they come from Arica or from other places.
But lettuces can be produced all year round. Why do we have to bring them from the Metropolitan Region?
There we have a marketing issue, one of our guidelines is to activate the most inclusive markets, short circuits. For example, my first visit was in San Carlos and I met farmers who are in a horticultural SAT, where they told us that they sold all their production at the artisan fairs in San Carlos. So, it also tells us that there are models that work in short circuits.
Thinking about productive development, what are the programs that you are interested in maintaining and promoting?
Of course, one does not have to invent the wheel. Here there are very virtuous experiences: the most systemic investment plan for wine stands out, INDAP has closely accompanied the stock formation processes, 25% of the grape reaches stockpiles that were INDAP’s investment, and that is something we want boost, because we know that we are not going to change the price of grapes, that does not depend on us, but it does depend on us to be able to open different types of markets, support farmers who are affected, learn from successful experiences, connect vintners and winemakers who already have experience, as technical advisors to our Indap users; also the dimension of rural tourism, we are in talks with the Regional Government, with the FAO, regarding rural digital connectivity, but leveraging from rural tourism, we are making the diagnosis to move in that direction. And agroecology, that is, moving towards a sustainable and resilient agriculture. That means that we are today with an imprint, we have a recent program called Transition to Sustainable Agriculture, which is going to be implemented here for the first time in Yungay and Pemuco, it is a pilot at the national level, which takes technical advice in more resilient agriculture matter.
