colombian agriculture and the andean
free trade agreement
tatiana roa VENDARIO, CENSAT AGUA
VIVA/FRIENDS OF THE EARTH COLOMBIA
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Colombia is a country of
contrasting regions and ecosystems.
As a result, many different crops can
be grown: coffee flourishes on its
mountain slopes, sugar cane in its
valleys, and cotton and sorghum in
the warm savannah regions. Potatoes,
cereal and wheat are other key
agricultural crops.
Colombia used to produce food so
successfully that it was virtually
selfsufficient. However the
aggressive opening of markets in the
nineties changed this, tipping
Colombian agriculture into
bankruptcy.
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Tariff liberalization in the cereal
sector allowed cheap imports to flood in,
putting many farmers out of business. The
area of land being farmed shrank by 750,000
hectares. Meanwhile, rural poverty rates
surpassed 80%.
The government has however failed to
learn from this experience, and the
proposed Andean Free Trade Agreement (TLC)
with the United States poses yet another
threat to Colombian agriculture. If
Colombia signs up, it will mean agreeing
not to use agricultural subsidies or
variable tariffs to protect domestic
agriculture and accepting yet more
subsidized cereal imports. It will also
lead to the patenting of biodiversity, and
the opening of markets to new foreign
investment and service providers, both
greatly benefiting incoming transnational
corporations.
raw trade deal for colombia
In return, Colombia 's benefits would be
confined to the flower, vegetable, palm oil
and tobacco sectors. In other words,
Colombia is being asked to exchange its
ability to feed its people for the
opportunity to increase exports. Food
security would be exchanged for
agricultural intensification, degraded
soils and the diversion of increasing
quantities of water to agriculture. This
has already been seen in intensive flower
cultivation, for example, which is no
longer confined to the plateau around
Bogotá, but has spread to the Amazonian and
Chocoanas forests.
In response, however, a national
movement against free trade and for
alternative agro-ecological production is
developing. Communities, farmers,
indigenous peoples and organizations are
establishing partnerships - such as the
Agrovida Association in the García Rovira
region - to promote organic production and
local regional markets, ensure fair prices,
and protect traditional seed varieties.
These local markets create new
relationships between urban and rural
people, improve their quality of life and
restore a degree of autonomy and
sustainability to communities. Ultimately,
they will form the foundation of food
sovereignty in Colombia .
