Economy
The goal of producing 21 million tons of food this year has not been secured so far, as the domestic agricultural sector has been affected by one of the worst droughts in history. This has undermined a vast number of crops.

The directors of the National Confederation of Agricultural Producers (Fedeagro) rejected on Thursday the "arbitrary actions" of the State against agricultural productive activity. The farmers association emphasized that Venezuela's agricultural policies rather than fostering domestic production have favored food imports.

In fact, 70 percent of agricultural products consumed in Venezuela are imported, inclu: rice, corn, coffee, sunflower, soy beans, legumes and grains, vegetables, oilseeds and sorghum. This represents a 25 percentage point increase compared to 2008, when imports amounted to 45 percent, Pedro Rivas, the president of Fedeagro, reported.

For example, government authorities decided for first time in several years to import coffee, sugar, rice and corn in order to meet the deficiencies of raw materials.
In the case of sugar, rice and corn, agricultural authorities decided to purchase those products abroad to compensate for declining production in last harvests due to bad weather conditions.

The negative effects of the "war against large estates," in which State authorities have seized highly productive lands, have also been reported in agricultural production.

According to Fedeagro, the outlook in 2010 will be similar to current situation since the government will have to import products such as white corn, rice and coffee to meet demand.

The producers association considers that Venezuela "urgently needs to add new lands to produce food". It says that "there are enough underutilized lands waiting to be developed."

They added that in the area nearby the Tiznado River (Guárico state) there are about 172,974 acres uncultivated. The producers also have reservations on lot divisions.

More lands, less production
According to official data disseminated by Fedeagro, the government of President Hugo Chávez has "recovered" 4,942.108 acres in 11 years and has "regularized" 12,355,269 acres. This means that in this period "17,297,377 acres would be developed by the state, and this has benefited 110,000 new agricultural producers." In this sense, the members of Fedeagro have asked: what has been the impact of these seizures and their contribution to domestic agricultural production.

Rivas highlighted that the private agricultural sector is mainly comprised of small and medium producers and it accounts more than 90 percent of the value of agricultural production, while seized lands do not make an important contribution to the agricultural GDP.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas