Magdalena's governor visits the Netherlands
On September 2 and 3, the governor of Magdalena - Mr. Carlos Caicedo, visited the Netherlands with the aim of strengthening the ties and the bilateral agreement between the Netherlands and this department, signed in 2020. Agricultural products such as palm oil, bananas, coffee and avocados form an important part of the bilateral relationship between the Netherlands and Colombia. Many of these products that connect the Dutch (and European) market – via the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam – with Colombia are either grown in Magdalena or exported through the port of Santa Marta, its capital city.
The governor held meetings with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, Department for International Development, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the knowledge organization Deltares on the projects under the theme of "Water for Agriculture" that are being executed in the region with funding from the RVO Agency's #PartnersForWater program. Agriculture being the main water user frames a different dimension/perspective of problems related to water. For this reason, recently an holistic collaboration with Dutch-Colombian consortia began in the Magdalena department aiming at making agricultural production more circular by: a) introducing efficient irrigation water techniques for oil palm cultivation, led by the company Delphy; b) introducing aquifer storage and recovery techniques for banana and plantain production, led by Deltares; and c) enhancing water governance between banana, coffee and palm oil producers through support to the Water Stewardship Platform.
Mr. Caicedo also visited the campus of the University and Research Center of Wageningen (WUR) to talk about circular agriculture in the research projects developed in the palm sector on the recovery of biomass, in the banana sector for the reduction / reuse of plastics of fossil origin and in the protein transition through insect rearing. Finally, he met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken) to discuss social and political aspects of the current situation in the country.
Certainly, this visit will strengthen the Dutch-Colombian relations and the areas of cooperation focused on the economic and productive reactivation of Magdalena, where the Netherlands has much to contribute.
Interested in learning more about the circular agriculture projects in Magdalena? Learn more here: The cycles to circularity: The path of Magdalena towards a more circular agriculture | Colombia | Agroberichten Buitenland