Colombia’s Minister of Agriculture announced a $31 million plan Thursday to make animal husbandry more productive and competitive, Colombia’s W Radio reported.
“The political instruments launched by the agricultural ministry confirms the engagement of the national government with the agricultural sector, which has been and continues to be the fundamental base in the construction of competitiveness in our rural territories,” said minister Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar.
He pointed out several factors needed to improve animal husbandry including fodder, pastures and the modernization of agricultural machinery.
In May, the leader of the Colombian Federation of Cattle Ranchers, Jose Felix Lafaurie, said problems of infrastructure, sanitation, institutional weaknesses and insufficient investment threatened the expansion of the animal husbandry industry.
The union leader said the free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union were “very bad” for Colombian livestock breeding, as cheaper products from abroad could impede the growth of the domestic sector.