Better irrigation produces more than 75000 tons of products

A project has been implemented to expand the area of irrigated cultivated land with the objective of increasing the country's food production through an improvement of the productive capacity of small and medium agricultures.

The project covered 317 municipalities throughout the national territory. Thus, it increased the irrigated cultivated surface by an average of 5.3 percent, although in some departments, such as Potosi and Santa Cruz, the average can reach 10 percent.

With the benefit of irrigation, the increase of this surface translates into the generation of 75 thousand 800 tons of agricultural products, mainly tubers, vegetables, and fodder aimed at internal consumption.

Thirty-three thousand families have benefitted, representing a population of 165 thousand people in rural areas, whose production reaches USD 13.8 million.

The irrigation program started as an initiative of the Central Government, as well as of the departmental and local governments which have made a public investment of USD 190 million. This investment was partly financed by CAF which has also provided complementary support for its implementation.