Nation and province coordinate efforts to assist the producers affected by the fires the day following. The Ministers of Agriculture Julián Domínguez and of Productive Development of the Nation Matías Kulfas announced lines of credit at soft rates and with a grace period, to assist ranchers, farmers and foresters, whose businesses were destroyed by the fire.
Domínguez returned to the province 13 days following his previous visit and announced 0% lines of credit with terms of 3 and 5 years for small and medium producers, up to $10 million per affected farmer.
“President Alberto Fernández asked that all available resources be allocated to the service of the producer,” said the minister who on February 7 signed agreements with Governor Gustavo Valdés to implement financing with the availability of 500 million pesos and now they are added other plans.
For his part, Minister Kulfas ratified that tax benefits will also be granted and highlighted the “coordination with the Ministry of Production of the province of Corrientes, with the Bank of Corrientes and with the Minister of Agriculture of the Nation.”
“We hope that this line will be, within this terrible scourge, a help to begin to recover and get ahead,” said the official who participated in the meeting by videoconference, and was followed by those who were in the Mercedes delegation of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), in which the holder of the Corrientes Production portfolio, Claudio Anselmo, also participated.
“All the credits will have a guarantee from FOGAR, which is the State as guarantor of the producer. We hope that this will be a credit that accompanies the producers, that is why they also have interest rates at zero rate the first year and very low rates the rest of the term, very accessible”, added Kulfas.
Domínguez confirmed that small and medium producers will be able to apply for loans with a maximum amount of $6 million, for a term of up to 3 years, with a grace period of 12 months. The rate subsidized by FONDEP will be 0% during the first year and, during the rest of the term, 14.9 percent.
They will also be able to access credits destined to rebuild equipment and material necessary for production, which will be up to $10 million per credit and will have a term of up to 5 years. The rate will also have a FONDEP bonus and will be 0% during the first year, 9.9% during the second and 22% for the rest of the term.
Those who were in person toured the facilities of the INTA Experimental Station, affected by the fire. The national, provincial and municipal delegation, together with councilors and legislators; they met with representatives of the Rural Society, with small and medium farmers in the area.
Joint task to prevent
Julián Domínguez also led a meeting at INTA Mercedes together with the regional directors and the technical teams of the organization and SENASA.
There, he raised the need to advance in a strategic plan in coordination with the rest of the national ministries, the provincial and municipal governments to respond to climate change.
Anselmo: “We work for the day following”
Minister Claudio Anselmo stressed that together with national officials “we are working to face the day following”, when participating in the meetings with his colleague from the Nation, Julián Domínguez, in Mercedes and thanked the contribution made by the federal administration in the framework of the environmental catastrophe in Corrientes.
He explained that the meeting was held “for several reasons, one of them is to maintain joint work with INTA, with all the stations of the regional center and in particular with the Mercedes station, which unfortunately suffered a fire a few days ago and was working with the entire technical team”.
Anselmo also indicated that “following the long-awaited rains we must work on the reconstruction, and put up the productive capacity of Corrientes once more and in particular the cattle ranch.”
He warned that “the problems that are felt today are going to have repercussions in one or two years, already with some crops there is little that can be done until the condition of nature does not change”, and he exemplified “tobacco where the losses are already suffered” and went on to explain that the losses in “yerba mate is under development, rice is partly harvested and will also be affected”.
He reported that from his portfolio the survey to certify the sworn declarations to access the benefits posed by the agricultural emergency is closely followed, in which “all the officials involved were instructed to be agile.”
He highlighted the urgent implementation “of the revolving fund of 200 million pesos that Nación provides us with, with which we are going to give direct assistance to unbanked producers, the smallest ones.”
He highlighted the announcement of the financing with lines of credit for 500 million pesos that will be in charge of the Banco de Corrientes for micros and SMEs to recover productive capacity and the Province in turn is pooling a series of lines to obtain funds of national origin. and international”.
