develosustaiIn a world increasingly aware of environmental and social challenges, the Chamber of Phytosanitary products and Fertilizers (CAFYF) in Paraguay has assumed a solid commitment with sustainability, where through actions focused on training and education it has been raising awareness about the importance of the Safe Use and Management of Crop Protection Products in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) over 27 years
By: Liz Rojas
Executive Director
CAFYF
April 2024
This task began in 1999, at first with another name that was later the CuidAgroSM Program, of CropLife Latin America, whose objective is to promote the responsible use of phytosanitary products for the protection of crops in alliance with various actors in the agricultural chain, be it: authorities, distributors, merchants, transporters and farmers.
It promotes education on the Safe Use and Management of Crop Protection products, directly with the agents of the strategic allies that it built during these 27 years, and through them they directly reach trainers from private and public institutions such as: the technicians of the Directorate of Agrarian Extension of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, teachers and students of the Agricultural Schools of the Directorate of Agrarian Education of the same ministry, technicians of the Cooperatives; teachers and students from schools and colleges in productive areas, who in turn transmit it to the entire productive chain, mainly to farmers. Thus, it also established important alliances with universities that have careers in the agricultural field.
Raising awareness among new generations
In the constant search to expand the reach of awareness, CAFYF with CuidAgroSM reached young students in different ways. Firstly, through its SEMBRANDO program, an initiative carried out since 2020 with the aim of awakening the interest of young people in the careers and opportunities offered by agriculture, through the dissemination of testimonies from women with work experience in the agricultural sector from different angles.
Likewise, it supported the installation of a vegetable garden in an urban school in the metropolitan area of Asunción, accompanied by training in GAPs with the challenge that the transfer of knowledge to children and adolescents entails.
In addition, with the support and participation in a television program on agricultural knowledge, where he raised awareness among young people from urban and rural institutions about GAPs. There, through conversations and entertaining dynamic practices, the students learned about the care that producers must take from the moment they acquire the crop protection products until the disposal of empty containers.
In these 27 years of cultivating awareness, CAFYF with CuidAgro achieved direct training for more than 8,000 people and indirectly for more than 300,000 people, according to reports and data provided by strategic allies from the public and private sectors. It also taught 700 young people through participation in the television program and training in urban and rural educational institutions.
It also created exclusive teaching materials for young people, such as magazines on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) aimed at students from agricultural schools dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, in which the main steps in GAPs were emphasized with didactic examples for young people.
With these actions CAFYF responds to its Sustainable Development Goals: 3- Health and Wellbeing, 4- Quality Education, 5- Gender Equality, 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities and 12- Responsible Production and Consumption.
