Colombia’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Juan Camilo Restrepo, highlighted the scientific expertise of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in the country’s well-drained savannas or altillanura, located in the Orinoquía region, indicating that this will prove highly useful to recover this immense region working together with other national entities.

"The transformation of this vast Colombian territory into a promising region for agriculture, as occurred in Brazil with the cerrados region, is at the top of the Ministry’s agenda and CIAT’s scientific memory will prove valuable in this endeavor", underlined Minister Restrepo at the end of a day-long visit to the Center’s headquarters in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, last 25 August.  

CIAT has a long history of scientific work in the Eastern Plains region or Llanos Orientales, especially in the area of Carimagua located in the Department of Meta, where significant advances were made in soil recovery and cultivation of locally adapted rice, grass, and maize varieties.

"We want to place scientific know-how and technologies at the service of agriculture and the inhabitants of “Colombia’s other half", as this region is called, and here is where CIAT’s expertise will prove quite useful so that it can join forces with the Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (Corpoica)”, stated Restrepo.

The Minister learned first-hand about several programs being carried out by CIAT that could be of special importance for Colombia. These programs deal with new pest- and disease-resistant varieties of rice, beans, fruits, cassava, and tropical grasses, some of which have enhanced nutritional content and improved resilience to face climate change.

"I’m quite impressed with both the Center’s staff and the programs being carried out", said Restrepo. "They are highly pertinent to the current situation of world agriculture and offer a very promising platform to join efforts with other research centers in Colombia".

A meeting will be held in Villavicencio in early October, with the participation of the Ministry of Agriculture, CIAT, Corpoica, and other potential partners, to discuss proposals directed to successfully initiate the transformation of Colombia’s altllanura and Orinoquía region.

For more information, contact:
Laura Trejos l.j.trejos@cgiar.org