A new and important partner joins the Smartcherry community: the GTT® Foundation, a private non-profit organization that seeks to boost one of the most important economic activities in the country by promoting innovative work methodologies and fostering partnerships.
“It is a story that is 40 years old, we started as a movement until 2012, under the auspices of the SNA where groups of farmers were formed to make transfers between them by item and that has been maintained, we have used a very successful method in Uruguay, Argentina, France and it has allowed us to maintain the pace of this transfer in groups for 4 decades,” explained Verónica Fernández, National President of the GTT® Foundation.
Currently, they bring together more than 1,500 producers of different crops and animal species, between the regions of Valparaíso and Magallanes, including numerous cherry producers.
“Specifically, they are groups of farmers, 10, maximum 15 people per group, because this works by calling a monthly meeting, where the group works for the host of that day; these farmers have to meet a profile, first of all being able to transfer the good and the bad of their fields, the good and the bad of the products we apply and, of course, receiving criticism with a lot of humility, and this has allowed us a lot over time,” Fernandez explained.
In 2018, the Foundation began to develop its institutional framework and build a working team. GTT® seeks to provide business training, specialized technical assistance, identification of technological gaps, adaptation and management of change, and relationship with the environment.
As for its objectives, it is possible to highlight: promoting the development of GTT® groups, representing the interests of its associates, improving the production and productivity of the companies that make up the GTT® groups, ensuring the stability of its associated companies by incorporating families in their management, diversification and specialization, seeking their greatest profitability.
“This transfer is between producers, each group has a monthly meeting and each president of these groups meets in the regional councils and reports on the monthly meeting and then these presidents of the regional councils go on to form the board of directors together with directors of the SNA and CODESSER,” said Veronica Fernandez.
The National President of the GTT® Foundation highlighted the trust and friendship that exists in the technology transfer groups: “The trust and friendship that exists between producers is fundamental. Each producer, when he is a host, delivers all his tasks at that moment, all his numbers, so there has to be trust with the other. This has allowed us in these 40 years to generate changes, to generate tremendous progress within agriculture at a national level. There is a huge difference between a GTT® producer and one who is not, marked mainly by the growth of these and the use of cutting-edge technology in their fields.”
Who are part of the Foundation GTT® also has access to relevant sources of information on the main topics affecting agriculture, such as climate, research, technologies, etc.
“Through the foundation, each group is allowed to have a link with each organization that provides this information, it is part of our ecosystem; GTT® is not only made up of farmers, but also of coordinators, advisors, agricultural companies, universities, INIA also belongs to our institution, so we are trying to cover all areas, all instances that can make a farmer grow,” Veronica Fernandez explained.
Finally, it should be noted that the Foundation is made up of medium and large producers, as well as a group of small farmers; everyone is welcome at the Foundation, and the best way to join is to gather a group of 5 to 15 producers of the same crop and approach the Foundation.
