"Crisis" in Venezuelan agriculture due to gasoline shortage

The deputy of the National Assembly (AN) of Venezuela, Luis Silva, last Friday denounced the "deep crisis" that the agrarian sector is going through due to the impact of the coronavirus and the shortage of gasoline that is registered in the country.

Silva said that due to the lack of fuel there is difficulty in complying with the transportation chain, which is causing the loss of crops.

"Quarantine and fuel shortages have caused little food to come out of the Venezuelan countryside. Crops are being lost and future crops are compromised; this will have an impact until the first quarter of 2021," Silva warned on the Twitter account of the AN, reviewed the National Communication Center.

The parliamentarian added that the production of the agri-food sector in Venezuela has been going through a sustained decline for 13 years. "In 2007, at least 70% of consumption was supplied with what was made in Venezuela. Today, we are supplying only 20% of consumption with national food production," he said.

He explained that land preparation is currently not being carried out because of the unavailability of the necessary inputs. "There are no seeds, there are no fertilizers, there are no agrochemicals and there is no fuel to transport them," he said.

The first vice president of Fedeagro Celso Fantinel recently pointed out that the shortage of gasoline is leading to the products being unable to reach the points of sale "and our producers cannot go to their production units".

The deputy of the AN, Alexis Papaparoni, member of the Subcommittee on Agro-Food Development, demanded that the Nicolás Maduro regime provide fuel to the country's producers and assured that the consequences for Venezuelans will be overwhelming and directly affect health.

The original Spanish version of this piece is from Diario Las Americas.