A new version of the Agricultural Water Summit was held on August 3 at the Sun Monticello Conference Center; Amagro AG was a sponsor of the important event and two of its partners participated in one of the expert panels.
The event, which covered various topics on the water crisis and how it impacts agricultural production, as well as examples to follow in order to confront the mega-drought that the country is experiencing, was attended by our president, Patricia Benavente, our vice president Maritrini Lapuente and our director Ana María Fernández, in addition to several members of our Women's Agricultural Association.
“As Amagro, we participate in the Water Summit because we believe that this type of meeting is extremely important, as it invites us to reflect on the tremendous challenges imposed by climate change and especially as a result of the growing water shortage. When we talk about water, we are referring to a cross-cutting problem that seriously endangers not only our agriculture and food security, but also the entire society and our environment. And precisely because it is such a complex and relevant issue, we believe that it is essential to consider the perspective of women, who, as was well mentioned during the masterful opening talk of the event, are part of the most vulnerable population affected by this type of catastrophe, which forces us to be much more responsible, active and proactive to rise to the enormous challenge.” said Patricia Benavente, President of Amagro.
The Agricultural Water Summit, in its second in-person version, after the online version in 2021, brought together more than 650 attendees and 70 companies; it also featured national and international experts from different sectors who analyzed the problems surrounding water resources in an industry that needs to constantly reinvent itself.
A significant number of Amagro members were also present at the Agricultural Water Summit and valued the meeting; among them Carolina Cruz, Carolina Uquillas, Claudia Barriga, Marie Gabrielle Bach, Amparo Domínguez, Francisca Barros, Javiera Serani, Karina Alegría, Cecilia Gutiérrez, Cecilia Casanova, Leonora Sepúlveda, Sandra Solezzi, Daniela Saavedra, Rina Guajardo and María Paz Rosés, among others.
“Currently, the agricultural sector is facing a water and economic crisis that makes production difficult. However, this situation can be a tremendous opportunity for farmers to approach technological innovation, to include in their payrolls the incorporation of technologies and to train their workers to achieve optimal use of resources, both water and energy used in the processes. This incorporation of technology, accompanied by education and training, can make Chile a leading country in sustainable production, and women have the role of being agents of change.”, commented Amparo Domínguez, partner at Amagro.
Carolina Uquillas, an agricultural engineer and PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and a specialist in plant breeding at the University of California, Davis, USA, also spoke about the event.
“Excellent presentations to raise awareness of the importance of water as a source of life, of the actions that are being developed at the governmental, educational, institutional and private levels to preserve it. The effects of climate change were analyzed, how the continued increase in temperature could generate loss of biodiversity and that, if we do not take action, potentially in less than two decades, a temperature increase of 1.5 °C could occur that would cause us to lack fresh water. But the interesting thing is that it did not focus on this negative scenario, but on the opportunities that these challenges bring and the actions to find solutions, such as the joint work of various disciplines, education, strengthening regulatory frameworks and accelerating the innovation and implementation of water strategies such as desalination plants, water transport through water corridors or the so-called “underwater rivers”, formats to accumulate rainwater, etc. Finally, I want to finish with a phrase that marked me and represents me: “In our sector, water is for the food we generate and not for farmers.”, highlighted the Founding Partner of CU Agro Commercial Consulting.
Partners at the Agricultural Water Summit
Two prominent Amagro partners were panelists at the important event on water and agriculture; Claudia Papic, independent consultant, moderated the panel “Climate scenarios for the agricultural sector”, which included the important participation of Dr. Diego Rivera and the panelists José Miguel Fernández, President of Fondo Sembrador; Carolina Cruz, Vice President of SNA; the former Minister of Agriculture María Undurraga, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Universidad San Sebastián.
“In our panel we had a presentation by Dr. Diego Rivera who presented the climate scenarios projected for Chile, mainly in the agricultural area, but from a positive perspective, that it is possible to face what these climate scenarios generate in the agricultural sector; he proposes more management than climate projection to face different scenarios that climate change brings, he raises the need for technology to make records and monitoring, promoting a monitoring network of climatic and water variables throughout the country in order to carry out such management,” explained Claudia Papic, independent consultant and sustainability expert.
The specialist called on those present to integrate the agricultural sector with other sectors, civil society, the public sector, and academia; in her opinion, it is essential to address these effects and challenges with an intersectoral approach of collaboration, coordination, and efforts to achieve effective results.
“As a conclusion of the panel, first of all, we would like to highlight this call for integration of the different sectors, to stop discussing the challenges of agriculture only among farmers, but to integrate the different sectors with which the challenges and potential actions are linked; then, to go a step beyond technology and start taking action based on the results that technology provides us, to strengthen public policies in aspects that go beyond the allocation and distribution of water, thereby promoting investment and strengthening the security of the sector, of people, of workers. Another relevant aspect was to take action to a vision of the territory beyond a particular understanding, that is, to see the effects, challenges and actions that must be implemented with a view of the basin of sections of the different rivers, of micro-basins of ecosystems and not to speak in general terms of an entire sector or of the entire agricultural area or of the entire agricultural industry, but rather to pay attention to the vision of the territory in order to effectively understand what is happening and where and to promote knowledge management; There is ancestral knowledge that must be minted, that must be transmitted and that must be used for this action. Finally, I wanted to emphasize that water is needed not for agriculture, but for food, because that is the only thing that will make the development of our societies sustainable.” Papic closed.
SNA Vice President and Amagro partner Carolina Cruz was part of the panel, which addressed the perception of the effects of climate change from the perspective of farmers, academia and the agricultural sector.
“There is no other topic that attracts more attention today, not only in Chile, but in the world, than the effects of climate change. Among them, the reduced availability of water resources is one of the most important, due to its impact on people's lives. What Water Summit achieves in terms of bringing together so many sectors (government, academia, industry, unions, professionals, etc.) around water is very valuable, since from here ideas, concerns, proposals and perspectives will emerge to face these new times. At SNA we have been working for a long time to communicate and transmit to the authorities the importance of placing water as the axis and center of the discussion, in the same way that was done some time ago with the generation of clean energy.”
Amagro's partner also added that: “Water plays an essential role in the generation of food, in activating and diversifying the economy of a country, but above all its availability for people must be protected and that is where we are missing out. The first thing is the people but also ensuring food security. The second is the role of the institutions and, in this case Amagro, it is to collect and carry out a diagnosis as close as possible to the needs of women who work in agriculture, their main limitations and strengths. Information allows for correct decisions and Amagro must be a communication channel to prepare women who in the short term will be in the strategic decision-making process with respect to their individual and collective role, for example, on the issue that brought us together, which is water.”
Two important voices who, in addition to referring to the need to make efficient use of water resources, also represented the Women's Agricultural Trade Association at the Agricultural Water Summit.
