CAF and CCIAP promote sustainable farms to strengthen Panama's food security

CAF, Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, signed a non-reimbursable technical cooperation agreement with the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (CCIAP), through which it contributes to the country's food security with the creation of sustainable farms, benefiting 150 families located in the town of Toabré, Province of Coclé.

The signing of the agreement was led by CAF's representative in Panama, Lucía Meza, and by the president of the CCIAP, Juan Alberto Arias, who, accompanied by their respective work teams, exchanged their expressions of gratitude for the mutual trust and for the process of negotiations necessary for the achievement of the agreement.

Meza explained that it is a cooperation of USD 150,000 that will be disbursed to support the project called “Technical transfers of crops for the creation of sustainable farms for family consumption and enhance small business initiatives”. “With this initiative we want to train 150 families and provide them with tools and inputs to start their own self-sustainable farm for family consumption and business management for family income, which has a strong impact on the nutrition of children, their growth and psychomotor development, better school performance, strengthening of the nuclear family, financial independence of our people through their enterprises and economic revival in one of the areas of the country that most need it,” he added.

For his part, Arias recalled that for the last three years, the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama has been promoting the project of self-sustainable farms in this region, located in the north of the province of Coclé. This year, in strategic alliance with CAF, “we are convinced that we are important players in the social development of the country to which we aspire actions like these support the development of the entrepreneurial spirit that allows these families to move from subsistence to commercialization, because the social development of the country to which we aspire depends directly on us, our actions and our effective contribution to the development of our children, youth and professionals, through education, health and entertainment”. On this occasion, this program has been extended so that these 150 families can be trained and have the tools and inputs to implement the correct development of good practices of self-sustainable farms”, Arias emphasized.

The purpose of this initiative is to transfer good practices to the beneficiary families on self-sustainable poultry planting and breeding; to provide the necessary tools and inputs to the families to start their own self-sustainable farms; and to provide technical training aimed at awakening the entrepreneurial spirit in these families so that they can move from family consumption to the commercialization of their products.