During the XXXVI Regional Conference of FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela proposed to facilitate access to new technologies and innovation to promote the rescue of ancestral seeds and promote family farming.
During her intervention at the meeting, the People’s Power Minister for Science and Technology, Gabriela Jiménez Ramírez, explained that, through the Scientific-Peasant Alliance, Venezuela is strengthening the production of healthy food for the people, despite the economic blockade and the constant imperial attacks.
“We rescue national seeds in perfect harmony with the knowledge of the peasant communities. However, innovation and technology processes tend to permeate more easily in the youth of the rural people. That is why it is essential that the International Council for Digital Agriculture encourages the participation of youth in these exercises to acquire technology and knowledge”, she said.
The Venezuelan delegate recalled that it is essential to work meaningfully so that family farming also has access to precision technologies. In this sense, she asked to support the development of free technologies, to guarantee equity and the appropriation of knowledge.
Likewise, the Head of the scientific portfolio of Venezuela took the opportunity to make the use of the Miranda and Sucre satellites available to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the development of regional agriculture.
“It is also key to guarantee the participation of peasant women, a fundamental force in the fields of our countries. I take this opportunity to thank FAO for its support in all the processes that we are developing in the rescue of quality seeds in Venezuela and that allow us to promote the national supply and distribution chains of food to the nation”, she said.
Jiménez Ramírez insisted that, despite the blockade, Venezuela does not give up and continues to seek innovative solutions to generate well-being in the population.
“From the Venezuelan Ministry of Science and Technology, we make ourselves available to the Academic Committee, the Research Committee and the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities for the development of all initiatives that from open science allow to strengthen family farming and reduce the effect of climate change on agriculture and food production for our peoples”, she said.