Hundreds of small producers who live in the Trifinio Plan area, an area shared by Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, will benefit from the project "Technological innovation and Scientific Research for sustainable and competitive horticulture in the Trifinio region", an initiative of the Government of El Salvador and the International Italian-Latin American Organization (IILA).

This project will enhance the training and qualification of technicians, improving the skills of farmers in the production and marketing of products. In addition, the dissemination of sustainable agricultural technology will be reinforced to grow the governance capacity of local entities.

The signing of the agreement between the IILA and the Trinational Commission of the Trifinio Plan took place last Monday and the producers are already projecting the benefits in the short term.

“It is going to benefit us, not only the metapanecos, but the entire country, because they are going to bring new technologies and they are going to support us in what we are going to produce. In my mind is forming a micro-business. That is the vision I have and the information they provided has fueled that vision, since before I had to go to San Salvador to take my products to a laboratory, now I will do those processes here,” said producer María Galdámez.

Coffee farmer Cecilia Palma, who has about 70,000 trees in a high area of Metapán, highlighted the benefits of this type of cooperation. “We welcome everything that Italian cooperation and the Government of El Salvador are offering. With the implementation of the applied techniques, good results will be seen in the forest and the support should be taken advantage of,” she added.

The country is advancing in precision agriculture with this work articulated between government institutions and the support of international cooperation, whose purpose is to strengthen technological processes in the agricultural sector.

“The new learning processes and the implementation of new technologies within the fourth industrial revolution must reach agriculture. That is the idea that we are proposing with the assistance of IILA, that they help us bring a whole new technological era to this area and that we apply it to traditional agricultural processes,” said the Vice President of the Republic, Félix Ulloa.

The Vice President pointed out that the Trifinio region has a strategic value and that thanks to the Italian-Latin American Institute there is the opportunity to take a step forward, which will allow technological and community development and a better quality of life for the inhabitants.

The Minister of Agriculture, Óscar Guardado, assured that: “With the signing of this memorandum of understanding between the International Italian-Latin American Organization (IILA) and the Trinational Commission of the Trifinio Plan we will achieve greater development of local agricultural production under a focus on social inclusion in the border region between El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The project is focused on families of small agricultural producers in the region, with emphasis on youth, women and vulnerable groups.”

“Agriculture is one of the priority sectors of intervention of Italian cooperation in El Salvador, in the Trifinio regions, throughout Central America and the Caribbean. Italian cooperation is committed to contributing to the improvement of the living conditions of the population dedicated to agriculture, through different projects that promote cooperativism, the creation of agricultural production chains, resilience to climate change and development. of business capabilities,” explained the Italian ambassador in El Salvador, Edoardo Pucci.

The Trinational executive secretary of the Trifinio Plan, Liseth Hernández, pointed out that they are working on a vision of sustainable developments, based on the needs of the population of the 45 municipalities of this region. "The project that the IILA cooperation is going to initiate has the purpose of forming a training space, an experimentation that allows us to be more robust in technical, scientific and research management."

“We are in a very rich territory, in a very important water recharge zone, not only for the member countries of the Trifinio Plan, but for Central America, because we have a cross-border biosphere reserve, the first in America with that category. A reserve that contemplates different ecosystems such as protected areas, lakes, aquifers, biological connectivity due to the diversity of species, but the most powerful thing is the cultural wealth that its population has,” Hernández explained.