Valle del Cauca Advances in Information Collection to Develop Precision Agriculture

Santiago de Cali, (@Minagricultura, @UPRAColombia, @claudialili76 @GobValle). With 13 actions in favor of the technification of agriculture in Valle del Cauca, a "Memorandum of Understanding" was signed between the Government of Valle del Cauca, through its Secretariat of Rural Development, Agriculture, and the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA). This agreement will allow the pooling of cooperation efforts and joint work, leading to significant results in the modernization of the sector.  

This memorandum will provide UPRA’s technical assistance. "This is important for the territorial planning of agriculture in the department; we will also strengthen soil zoning in our region, develop models in the Pacific focusing on coconut and marine production, which we need in our Buenaventura district. Additionally, the transfer of knowledge related to costs and financial evaluation will help farmers understand the value of the crops we are cultivating in the department," said Ángela Reyes, Secretary of Rural Development, Agriculture, and Fisheries of Valle del Cauca. 
 
Highlighting the progress in the systematization of agricultural and rural data, which positions the department as a pioneer in the use and application of such information, UPRA Director Claudia Liliana Cortés stated: "We want to maintain the collaborative work that has been developed, taking advantage of information technologies. We have several key points of convergence, such as supporting Peasant, Family, and Community Agriculture, zoning marine-coastal fishing, transferring the methodology for identifying Areas of Protection for Food Production (APPA), and prioritizing actions in the recently declared peasant reserve zones. There are shared interests that we want to develop, leveraging this robust data." 
 
The 13 themes contained in the memorandum will enable more detailed and high-quality information, which will be highly useful in sector planning. This approach aims to achieve precision agriculture for small, medium, and large producers alike. In this context, Cortés emphasized, "The Secretary of Agriculture has presented us with very important work alongside the CVC, based on 1:25000 scale soil information; a powerful tool because it provides an appropriate level of detail for the precision agriculture that Valle del Cauca aims to develop, and for us in territorial aptitude zoning and defining the agricultural frontier." 
 
It is worth noting that these advances have already begun to positively impact agriculture in Valle del Cauca, with policies, programs, and projects that have been structured based on accurate and reliable information, such as the Valle Agroecological Plan and the identification, characterization, and georeferencing of equipment, goods, and services of interest to the agricultural sector through the Collaborative Agricultural Infrastructure Network (RECIA). 
 
(Office of Communications, Government of Valle del Cauca - UPRA)