 Thank you, thank you very much for joining us at this panel. I really enjoy being with you here at the World Economic Forum on Latin America in Medellin. I am going to start with a brief introduction in English. The Latin American Caribbean region has a third of the world's fresh water resources and more than a quarter of the world's medium to high potential farmland. The region as a whole is already the largest net food exporting region in the world and it still has achieved only a small fraction of its potential to expand agricultural production for regional consumption and global exports. The essential building blocks for massive and sustainable agricultural growth are already in place. But in order for the entire region, for Latin American to deliver on its enormous agricultural potential, many moving parts will have to be brought into harmony. And this is what brings us together, the harmony that the agricultural system in our region needs and how can new technologies and innovation help to expand agricultural production in Latin America. I want to introduce my panel to start. We also have Victor Manuel Villalobos, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. And Laxman Narish Simhan, Chief Executive Officer, Pepsico Latin America, Pepsico USA. Last name. You did really well. Rear near to what it is. Very, very well. Thank you, Laxman. Better than Grobo. That was a challenge, you know? Stop. So, we're going to have fun today, I think. I want first to identify the problems that are not helping be our region, what really has to be in the agricultural area, in how it can provide the world of this basket that everyone is talking, especially the fowl. Juan Pablo, can we start with that, identify main problems in Latin America agriculture that is not permitting the region to potentialize and expand as the world's greatest basket? Sim, I'm going to speak Spanish. Sure. No, whatever you want. The core challenge faced by Latin America is that Latin America viewed as this monumental pantry is based on the following numbers. In the year 2050, we will go from 1.5 billion planted hectares to 1.6 billion hectares. This is by the year 2050, but who's going to be planting them? That's a truly important aspect, and what is the vocation? We have said that we are going to see a reduction in the advanced country's surface of 40 million hectares. So, it's going to grow. Well, obviously the developing countries, and if we look at where they are, some of them are in Latin America, some are in South America, mainly, and others are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of those in Latin America, we are saying that it would be responsible for about 47 percent, and in that 47 percent, allotted to Latin America, let me give you a news that is quite challenging, and it is that we have 26 million hectares available for the agricultural sector without touching forest, water sources, or indigenous communities, or the Afro lands, which means that the true challenge in principle in Colombia is see how we're going to deal with this, because will we tackle it as Colombia, or will we tackle it as Latin America? Earlier, we were talking with the Minister of Argentina about not listing the products that you will take from me to see what I can take from you, because that's like market extortion. What we have to say is how can the both of us go about making sure we go together to the market and the market of this size. Victor Manuel, let us continue identifying the problems, particularly when there are countries insisting on closing their borders, or bartering, you know, I give you this, you give me that, and so how is that affecting the region is specifically in agriculture? Well, thank you. I would say that fortunately, this situation has been overcome due mainly to information today, countries, and regions, and in particular producers are very well informed of what is happening in the markets thanks to ITCs, to ICTs, to information and communication technology. At a previous meeting, we were saying that it's not an information problem, but rather an issue involving the quality of the information supplied. But going back to the point, this is a minor problem, because you see, fortunately, the force that is driving markets and productivity is based on the information related with the relationship between the public and private sector, and this is key because at the end of the day, the supplement, the relationship between these two very important sectors will benefit agriculture today. We cannot think of having in place policies governing or ruling market access. If we lack a mechanism whereby we can define the country's policies, market access, now, if we were to move on to more technical issues, we must remember that technological innovation funded mainly by the private sector is also contributing to the development of agriculture and good agricultural practices and good farming practices. And I would say that the role of the public sector will actually facilitate the implementation of all these good agricultural practices, taking into account sanitary and phytosanitary measures. And thanks to this relation, we are moving towards a far more competitive agriculture. Gustavo Victor Manuel spoke of private initiatives, and I would like you to talk about public initiatives and I would like to use your country, Argentina, but as an example, you produced 22% of the soybean worldwide, and the new administration, the Macri administration started off with implementing measures targeting agribusinesses, reducing taxes and adopted measures, and has changed the landscape forged by the previous administration. Has that contributed to agriculture in Argentina because we had, you know, a certain kind of policy in one administration, the next administration changes them and then comes the next and changes them all over again. So how will this administration, Macri administrations, help achieve what when it's been, you know, somewhat isolated from the global market? You've said it right, you know, we are like guinea pigs. In Argentina, we run lab tests to see how far mankind or society can actually withstand certain things and maybe the agricultural sector is, you know, the poor rat, or the most precious rat, rather. And the Macri administration is trying to repair certain things that had led agricultural output to not grow in the last five, six years. It's stabilized at about around 100 million tons in, you know, a world where other countries like Brazil and the U.S. continue to grow at relatively high rates. So what is going to happen now and is already happening and the president said so, is that we are going to have a sort of catch up. We are going to get out of this delay and we are going to go from 100 to 150 million tons in three to five years. So it's going to be significant growth. But I'd say that what is truly important is looking at the future with, you know, through the rear view mirror or to look at the future of the future because I think that what lies ahead and particularly in this meeting, the fourth industrial revolution, these are all things that are definitely going to change the way we do things, you know, the culture, as well as the products. And I think it has much to do with the technological convergence that we heard about today and that technological convergence where there is, you know, artificial life and you can design plants as you design objects, you know, precision agriculture, nanotechnology applied to different aspects. The big data internet, I mean, new agricultural machinery that has been robotized. So I would say that technological convergence will change agriculture and will turn around the farmer's role, the role of people engaged in agriculture that's been mitified in a person on horse or a tractor in the countryside. And that producer will now be part of an ecosystem that looks more like an automobile assembly line. And the point is how will society ready itself for that in a world where you have to face many challenges. We have food security. We have poverty. 70% of poverty happens, you know, on our side of the world. People migrating from the countryside to the cities and, you know, from one countryside to somebody else's countryside. So I think that we stand before a monumental challenge and I would say that Latin America and the South of South America stand before, you know, a very big challenge but a monumental opportunity. And I think that culture is important. I mean, there are people who have, let's say, their farming tradition and there's innovation in the countryside and in agriculture, not just in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, but there are specific areas in Chile and Peru and even in Colombia where you are leaders in certain agricultural outputs and production. But this point of how we organize ourselves, how we invest in technology is something that in this green industrial revolution where plants themselves are like factories, Latin America could very well be the England of the 18th and 19th centuries. And that's the type of revolution we need here, you know, the green revolution because of the characteristics I've just described and that's the challenge. Okay, we're talking about public policies now. Let's go to the private sector. How do companies such as PepsiCo, for example, play an active role in boosting technology and innovation throughout the agricultural sector in Latin America? How is the private sector providing that? You know, PepsiCo is an agribusiness. And being an agribusiness, we recognize the responsibility we have, particularly to small land farmers. I think we heard a statistic that 80% of the people produce 20% of the output. And the big challenge you have in Latin America is do we leave these people behind? So let me tell you a quick story. You know, six weeks ago I was in Guatemala and in Guatemala I met a couple of indigenous farmers, a man and a woman, husband and wife. And the man gave me a potato and said thank you for what you've done. And the woman said, well, we appreciate very much the opportunity you've given us to earn money and frankly, realize a much better life. If we are looking at not leaving people behind, it is important for us to recognize that we can't leave some of the small land hold farmers behind. And so that's the story there. You know, we've gone from 10 tons of potatoes to over half a production really coming from farms like this in Guatemala in a short period of time. So we know there's a big need. There's more food needed. There's a lot of waste. There's inefficiencies in the supply chain. Land is not available or if it is available it isn't particularly arable. And so we're going to need innovation and technology in a material way. And we as a private sector recognize that what we have to do is help drive productivity, eliminate the variability that exists. You have great productivity in some parts and in other parts you don't have very much and that happens even within a country. So how we drive productivity is one thing. The second thing is how we reduce waste. Literally from seed all the way to fork. The third thing is how we ensure we are helping ensure that people are making money, the small land holders making money so that they can actually not rely on things more than what they're doing. Because one of the other challenges you have is clearly you have women integral part of agriculture. We've got to bring technology innovation to ensure that they make it. But also that we continue to make farming an exciting profession for young people. So what do we do? We're a partner. We essentially work with a variety of people who have technology. We have our own but we frankly recognize we don't have all the answers. So we're bringing a bunch of people. Be it seed technology, be it harvesting, be it what we do with imaging, weather forecasting, we're a partner. We collect and we bring. The second thing is we are a big customer. So what we do is we eliminate volatility and variability. So if a sunflower seed farmer is making it, we guarantee supply. They can get money and they can get financing. The third thing we do is we help the delivery of this capability through training and through capacity building. And the last thing is we are engaging with people like the government as well as with NGOs and in a great institutions like you all in order to ensure that we are setting the grounds ready for things to happen. So we know we play a unique role but we set this unique role in a broader purpose and the purpose is at the end of the day if we don't solve the issue of the small land hold farmer, if we don't let the indigenous people really come into the consumption set, we will have issues. And Latin America is a great opportunity and we recognize our responsibility there. Victor Manuel, would you like to add something? Yes, I agree 100% with what Gustavo said and I would like to add an additional characteristic to what makes this region of Latin America a region with a great potential to secure food security. It's our biodiversity, we have many species, many breeds, we have the genes that cannot be invented but these genes are going to help us modify plants through technological tools and we can do this breeding and use existing technology to adapt our crops, our animals which we depend on for producing food stuff based on the challenges we face and that agriculture will continue facing in the future and I'm talking about, you know, the impact of climate change, new plagues, new disease, a series of factors that fortunately the genetic diversity we have is in our region and that's not by chance. I see a concern surface here because we're talking about new technologies and innovation in agriculture but each country has its own specific characteristics in its agriculture and that leads me to ask Pablo about the countryside in Colombia and the challenge with the so-called post-conflict and what lies ahead and how to adopt the technology and innovation to the countryside and I say this in general for Latin America where the countryside is always the first thing to be forgotten by the government but at the same time is the source of income for many of the big politicians, you know, so maybe we discuss science technology utopically without truly resolving a large number of problems and I use, you know, Colombia is by way of example because you, Mr. Vice Minister, are here when we speak of a drug that has been a very important, you know, activity for people in agriculture so is there a legal crop that can actually replace those illegal revenues and that's true not just for Colombia but that's, you know, in other countries one is saddened when you see this flow of farmers migrating to the city. Thank you for your question because it gives me the chance to explain why Colombian countryside has so many because, you know, when I told you about the 26 million hectares you say okay but you have too many. Why? Why do you have so many and why do you have such a rich potential? Because our problem has always been that we have been at war for the last 60 years. I mean this internal conflict has prevented us from leaving the cities. My parents' generation know Paris and New York much better or any other capital of the world, you know, Buenos Aires in Argentina. They know those cities much much better than any rural city or rural province in Colombia. Why? Because we were unable to go out to our countryside. The generation that is now going out to the countryside is mine and maybe a generation younger than my own is traveling Colombia and with this analogy I'm trying to give you a vision of why and the degree of backwardness in agriculture that's the biggest challenge in Colombia. How are we going to move forward? We have to, you know, accelerate this process and we cannot wait. Like Argentina waited, you know, some 30 years. Like Gustavo's company, what, you're 20, 30 years old? Yes, 30 years. I mean yours is a company that's not done overnight and all we have is heroes in our countryside. So this is our first opportunity and our first challenge and I want to present an analogy I presented earlier and it's a quote of Victor Hugo when he said hopefully freedom will not be the hangman of ignorance and the post-conflict that can be an opportunity if all of Latin America and the world believe in post-conflict in Colombia and Colombia as well. Otherwise it can be a very big risk and depends on how we see things and we in agriculture see this as a very big risk and here I want us to talk business like many of the entrepreneurs sitting at this panel. What is the business today? Commodities are becoming scarcer and scarcer and we are going to have a significant scarcity of raw material in the next five years, some speak of 10 years, but that's as far as it goes and that is feeding the world and something more important animal protein is not being produced at the same pace at which humanity is growing and what does that mean that without protein the brain will not develop and we're talking about national security in food security and that's why we've asked the WEF this time that it allows to be part of this initiative which is a new vision for agro food businesses in today Mexico is there from on behalf of Latin America and we received with support to prioritize Colombia as well so that many of the companies here represented may invest in Colombia because we Colombians believe that this is something we cannot do on our own. I mean this is something we have to do together and I would say that is the challenge we face as a country and to close your question I mean I want you to see where we're at and like my head, Mr. Irragore says, my boss Mr. Irragore says, we are in the days of the machete. We want to go at least to move on to the grass cutter you know with a little engine on it and everything I mean that's the challenge. How do we go about accelerating that? I don't have an answer and I think that we are called to do this. Would you like to answer? No, just reinforce this that the story of transformation of agriculture in Latin America will be a story of inclusion it'll be the story of bringing people along and let me give you two examples of how the private sector actually does that in the countryside that you mentioned. So one is from Colombia and the other is from Peru. In Colombia and again back to the peace process and what's been going on in Belém de Umbria you know we have essentially invested in a facility there we have a brand called Natu Chips which is a which is a brand I'm sure you would all love and behind the brand you'll actually see the story of somebody who's actually picked the product and actually is in our plant cutting it and making it. We've employed 90 widows from the peace process in that factory largely because we believe it's important for us to also be part of the process of the reconciliation of country. The second piece of this is actually heritage and wondering about heritage. So if you look at Peru 4,000 varieties of potatoes what we have done there is actually go back to some of the heritage seeds and we have created a product we've branded it called Papa Sandina and it's again a way for us to preserve the heritage of that country. So back again to this idea of ensuring that people come along they bring their heritage with them that's part of what we believe as well is an opportunity to fully agree with your point around what we need to do in order to transform it. I believe that the world the rule is viewed as a problem and it's viewed as a problem everywhere. There are you know places where there is a lot of poverty in Latin America and in Argentina it's because we have wealth in Brazil it's because any agri business that first is in Brazil industry drops so this is a mirror showing that whatever we do is not competitive and politicians many come from the countryside as soon as they go to the cities they become urban and they forget the rural and they would rather never go back to the countryside and they show no interest in rural affairs they don't want to transform they want to resolve a short-term problem they want to resolve a conflict as quickly and swiftly as possible and I believe that the multilateral and I also believe that you know we talk about the rural but truly you know one is interested in transforming it and I think that now having said what I said that the countryside is the heart of the new green industrial revolution the first to realize that the countryside is the opportunity for the 21st century it's going to be fantastic they are going to be the winners and those who you know stay on thinking in cities are going to fall behind and lose and this is an economic political crisis all over in Brazil there's a struggle between the agro business and the industrial sector in Argentina the same as true and here you know we have the issue of the land owners relationship with farmers so there is a different type of conflict but in the end the truth is that we don't really care about rural development we only care about the papers and the discourses but that's going to change and the first thing the first one to realize that will be the winner Victor Manuel and why is no one interested and for Gustavo to say it so bluntly is very interesting because he says it's going to happen the problem is it's going to happen when I mean you know I think that the rural population or like Juan Pablo said is it happening this is a problem that has many facets I would say that an important point that requires consideration is that this is a problem that cannot be resolved on the short term and we must take into account the need for a process whereby one can define long-term policies and when where there is an attitude and process whereby agriculture is seen not as you know an area that's lagging behind or a poverty pocket or the supplier of raw material but rather as part of a country's development and in that regard I would like to say something that may seem somewhat pessimistic the long-term vision is not or is not necessarily in the hands of politicians I mean their needs are very short term so we cannot think that in a specific period of time regardless of how well intended the policy is that the problem be resolved in a political in the term of a political administration so I guess that we should you know we should wage our bet on youths how to make sure that youths youngsters identify with themselves with and relate to agriculture and to the countryside how to turn agriculture into an activity that youths that like innovation and technology would actually identify an opportunity that they're failing to see today youths are expelled from the countryside because you know the living conditions and opportunities are very different in the countryside compared to urban centers so we need a long-term policy but we also need a policy that is tied to how we can go about managing retaining that human capital that on the long run could actually change the situation and I agree with Juan Pablo there are generations that leave the countryside and never return in spite of it being its homeland its origin so we must always think about the long term and to enamor youths with agriculture have them fall in love with it but that's a problem Juan Pablo you know long term thinking in Latin America and also to envisage long term policy and I'm going to mention policy because you know we see waves in our region 20 years ago we spoke of the 21st century socialism that the left wing that had another view you know closing down a free trade agreements 15 20 years later we see another wave of change in the region we're discussing the Pacific Alliance so how can we in Latin America envisage long term policies first I would say let's take this out from political parties this is not left wing or right wing left or right the truth is that doesn't affect me in any way what affects me is the country model what is the Latin American model how are we going to unite the issue of policies and politicians where everybody blames everybody else those politicians are not long-term thinkers and what about the entrepreneurs and what about those who elect the politicians and what about our columnist in our society I was part of a team that set up a plan and called colombia siembra colombia plans we presented it to international agencies to turn it into programs and projects and I was asked why are you going after you know your way to structure a plan and you'll be leaving in six months a vice minister of agriculture in columbia is the tenure is you know the equivalent he will be around for two corn harvests that's ridiculous you know in 102 years we've had a hundred ministers so you you're answering this and I'm getting there I'm getting there the thing is politicians and then the incoming minister wants to do something now and when my boss said to me no we're not we don't have to think now let's think 2050 so let's structure everything in such a way that we sell this to people as something from today to 2018 but the basis the foundation is to 2050 and something else we discussed with you we need to retain our Thailand what PepsiCo does wonderfully what the global all the multinationals that realize that the value added is provided by people not machines and not the accounting nor the checks so we have to do that with the agriculture in columbia and here we have a challenge which is you know 12 million people in the countryside in europe throughout the european union we have 12 million people in agriculture what they don't have is people over there and what we have here is people so let's prepare our people and latin america and this doesn't happen in bolivia peru and even a rich country a rich cousin you know from argentina sitting on the other side I think that we have you know to shift the paradigm like a brazilian said the countryside this is a minerva a meat company CEO who said to us make the countryside turn it into something sexy and I think that agriculture is becoming sexy again it's becoming an interesting opportunity many youths come to my office you know I want to go and do my internship in the countryside and that never happened before I want to live in the countryside but yet too few for the time being like you said gustavo very few are seeing this in our responsibility is let's tell them you know where's the business because if there's no business there's no countryside if there's business there's countryside let me add let me add something no no you're you can you you can ask me whatever you want to know answer as I please so let's let's shorten the process dear there is something I need to say and it is that you know in the countryside we usually find family businesses the producers are the sons of the sons of a farmer of a landowner and that is I would say the the mother of the problem and I say that because I come from a family company my grandfather was a farmer my father took the reins of the company and now myself and we need to get the best and most innovative people to the countryside and they are not necessarily the sons of and they're in in Argentina and in Uruguay and Brazil we have a system that is land rental the ability to lease the land will disengage ownership from management hence the importance of sustaining this when we disengage the ownership of the land the management of the land we managed to have this process of innovation flow freely and that makes it interesting to you to come and because you know if a young man who graduates from university can actually lease land from a group of people get together with other friends of his own that is going to be interesting in Argentina 80 percent of agriculture is done by producers who are not landowners and it is the youngest agriculture in the world and that's the reason youths want to go to the countryside to work because there they can be innovative they can make money they can project themselves and they'll happily go live in the countryside because there they have a much better quality of life and it's much much cheaper to live in the countryside than to live in Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires and you can raise your family better and you can make you know better and greater progress and if we have laws enacted and you know politicians come into play and it's not that I hate politicians I don't I'd love to be a politician myself you know I'd work less and make more money if I did become a politician so it is it is appealing yes Juan Pablo you after Gustavo for example in Brazil no at least you know I won't be burnt out I can be burnt out because of the work in Brazil outsourcing is considered like slavery outsourcing is not viewed as key for generating all these flows and this pattern of specialty ought to frequently laws go against this process laws on land the difficulties to lease the land yes in Ecuador they put an end to outsourcing yes but outsourcing is the answer to knowledge it's outsourced because you need specific specialized knowledge that's why you outsource because that knowledge is not in the company you need other companies having that knowledge so to put an end to outsourcing is going back years and that's the end of what I wanted to say thanks man yes I was gonna add something if I could it's going back to medieval times that Gustavo will not be in an election I do actually agree with what he said having said that you know for us about politicians no I didn't say that about that no no no I was talking more about land and you know I was I was going I'm not going there but but the but the fact of the matter is that you know we when we look for crops we're not going to cities we have to go to the rural areas we have to find a way for them to work and the reality is that the youth need to know that they can actually make a lot of money in these farms if you look across the world in fact the youth are leaving the farms it's not that they're not they really are so I think we have to find a combination of a couple of things one is we have to find ways for the government to step in either with a ppp framework or with something like that that will actually enable the investment in infrastructure in these rural areas that will make it easier for them to both grow as well as bring the products to market and the second thing we have to do is we have to contemporize farming at a very different level technology really provides us a great way to do that now you know there's a lot of 4g 5g all these things coming in the question is we know that skill building is going to be important we know the sharing ideas and best practices is going to be important how do we bring technology and find a way to contemporize and make it more attractive to the young people who go to these places and don't feel that they've gone back in time so we have to find a way to make farming attractive again I wouldn't use the other word I'd say how do we make it more attractive and at the same time how do we ensure that we give them the ability with the investments in infrastructure that help them make more money that help them realize they can live in rural areas and still have a great life we already talk about politics and I want to continue with Lexman now about climate change we're talking I just moderated for a panel on the fourth industrial revolution talking about okay this is a new wave it's emerging and how it's going to affect environment and our climate and the climate change how can technology and innovation help seek solutions to new agricultural opportunities regarding adaptability to climate change how do they go hand to hand you know one of the big elements of climate change is really what happens with water and there's a big water usage in agriculture so if I take that as the example you know there's there's a lot of water that's wasted in in agriculture there are lots of ways even today and things that we're investing behind and things that we're doing you know we have something we call sustainable farming and the sustainable farming initiative is something that we have done we've taken some of the manufacturing ideas and we go to farmers and we teach them what is it that we can bring to bear in order to help them be far more sustainable in water there's a lot of technologies that help them use less water there's things that they can do with seeds and with varietals that actually consume less water there's practices that can be shared that at the end of the day help them ensure that the water is being reused even in plants for example in brazil in one of our coconut water places we actually recycle the water because it has nutrients it goes back into the into the actual field itself so we're finding ways to bring that in there recognizing that climate change is here we as a company are committed to ensuring that we do what's right and make the appropriate contributions we think water is an area that we can particularly have an impact given our business and we build that into the way we do our business in terms of what we do regarding climate change yes agriculture is a victim in i would say the biggest victim of climate change because of its cycles and yet it is also responsible because we have contributed to climate change and we have you know produced a lot of greenhouse gases and unfortunately today there are technologies out there and i'm not you know proposing that we're going to reverse this but we at least must apply them and there are good examples in south america in brazil and argentina you know direct planting is a wonderful example and is also closely tied to the proper use of water if we to produce an apple need 70 liters of water when technologically it can produce this we can produce the same quality apple with half that volume of water but we should be applying the technology so i say that fortunately those technologies exist but how do we put those technologies in the hands of apple growers or in the hands of rice growers and there there's another very important topic that i mentioned in my previous comment and has to do with the long term yes in effect politicians that are making agricultural policy have a very short period of time and need to produce short term results but tied to this long term vision we must invest in officials inside the ministries that will remain in the ministries once the minister's term is over and in so doing we can at least think that we could have you know a bit longer term policies but when we're talking about climate change when we talk about the problems that require incorporating knowledge technology particularly at the level of small productive units well we need to build that knowledge that human capital inside the ministries and this has to do with you know knowledge on the use of biotechnology biosecurity other issues pertaining to the requirements for exporting products because what's the use of having good quality products if we are not meeting another country's requirements and if we don't know that and there's no one to convey that or to teach that to the different farmers well that should force us to think about shaping forging that the human talent inside the ministries and have a view of a different modern agriculture and who will stay at the ministry some view climate change as a problem and that is not our view we see it as a new way of life here we in the specific case of Colombia and all the other countries on the Ecuador Ecuadorian line we say it either rains and we flood and there's no food or it doesn't rain there's a drought and there's no food and this is a new way of life so what we need to do is do what the northern Nordic countries do or the northern countries do is to produce all their food in three four months and what they do is optimize water I agree 100% but it's also soil related not all of us in the tropics we're accustomed to everything growing we are a country where everything grows once García Marquez was asked why in Colombia we didn't have more Juan Pablo Montella as a great pilot more Carlos Vivas more Jaquitas and he said oh no because we are a country of gophers and that happens to us in Latin America because we have the sun the rain and good land no we have to specialize as we've said here earlier but we must also view climate change as an opportunity cattle raising changed the system changed radically we used to have extensive cattle raising NGOs would come to us and say oh the thing is you are extending the agricultural frontier no we're not expanding the agricultural frontier but what we're going to do is optimize our land and plant all the food in three four months so if it rains then they can feed their animals and if it doesn't rain they have secured the feed they need so climate change is a new way of life for all human beings I agree I agree that it's a new way of life but it's created by us by the industries maybe you will be invited in 20 years and we'll see how we think by then but yeah maybe Darwin well but we have to stop that well three weeks ago I was in Silicon Valley in Tesla and I was looking at renewable energies and the changes undergone during these past years and renewable energy those changes are incredible there are quotes for solar energy that is that are cheaper than fossil energy it's much cheaper and when it's cheaper there's no better public policy if the energy if solar energy is cheap if wind energy is cheap or there's already countries that change their energy matrix like Germany for example or Uruguay in Latin America they have solar energy now and the best thing for a country then the best thing that can happen to a country is to lose its oil and gas industry because the sources of energy that are much cheaper now now I came with a lot of hopes of course during the past five thousand years this is agriculture has really changed a lot for the first time in history we are going to leave soil to our children much better than the ones that their parents had this is this is unprecedented in history it's like in medicine we're seeing things that we didn't see before and it allows us to make agriculture more efficient now bacteria for example bacteria are helping us replace fertilizers and I think that's going to happen very soon because agriculture has this thing that costs does it really quickly management ability is going to continue growing I see that the change in the energy matrix is something that is given it's going to impose itself during the next 10 years but it's a given it already began and in agriculture well obviously this doesn't happen everywhere evenly and agriculture is going to have primitive and highly developed systems coexisting but I think that a challenge of the region is to allow that the flows of knowledge among people are going to be free we have to accept that Argentinian engineers that come to Colombia or Colombians that go to Argentina to do something else between Brazil needs human capital in Argentina has a surplus of human capital why don't Argentinians go live in Mato Grosso why don't we work to dissolve those political barriers that were imposed upon us I think that beginning to work regionally and facilitating the flows of knowledge and people and of goods and services is one of the roads to do it faster but the solution is going to come quicker than what we thought I am not going to ask any more questions we have approximately 12 15 minutes for to take questions from the audience can you believe can you begin please well I don't know if this is a question but it's more a way of thinking I think that the approach should be different because we here began this debate by saying that the world is going to be six billion people and that we have to produce food but that vision of Latin America has has condemned us to be manufacturers of raw material and even if we duplicate our production we're always going to be poor but who are we going to feed and with what so we're doomed actually if we're going to sell ourselves soybean soy or being oiled to China we're not going to solve anything we need to know what sector of China we are going to feed and we are going to combine meat with rice with potatoes and tomato for example and give it combined if we don't think as an industry that has to provide a product with a brand we are not going to stop being the producers of basic inputs and of commodities yeah it's important to innovate but you have to innovate in processes too you can I don't know you can produce rice cookies if you want to rice crackers of course but you can produce more rice per hectare so it's the two things you're going to make money upstream and downstream also and evaluate and those are the big challenges I think that there is much more to win now in processing innovation than in product innovation but you got to do the two things yes we have to bear in mind that the middle class is going to be duplicated it's going to double in the next six or seven years they're going to have more purchasing capacity they are going to demand more value-added goods and of course we got a lot to offer cheese wine cocoa coffee etc but this is not a normal coffee anymore we have to talk about specialty coffee chocolate with special aroma a series of products that the consumer to today's consumer who has a bigger purchasing power is going to demand all that sophistication and we have to be prepared we've got to rescue what President McCree was saying in the morning let's stop being suppliers of raw materials and let us see how we are going to add value to those products which we know are going to have a demand here we have a series of market niches that might be modest now but they are going to continue growing because of that now there's organic agriculture for example organic agriculture is not going to give us food security but it is a niche of the market that will pay very well and we have to begin associating the technology certification all that all those factors that ensure that the consumer who is interested in consuming even if he pays 30 or 40 percent more he wants to consume that product because he wants to know the origin of what he is consuming he wants to know the footprint of the environmental cost all that so that is where we should aim our precision shots it was that was something else yes innovating and product and value added and all that that's okay but as long as tariffs continue to go up and there are no FDAs this is utopia and it should be very clear Europe is going to buy soybean it is not going to buy frozen chicken because frozen chicken pays 20 percent tariff and then soybean doesn't pay anything so all this stuff about value added all this talk about value added is nothing it's worth nothing if there is no integration innovation is utopia let us produce more let us be the lowest cost producer for example let us be more efficient let us do better with the environment we've got a lot to be able to innovate our process not only the product I mean I'm not against but but we still can do things elsewhere low cost being a very good commodity player is also a way to go but at the same time the Latin American consumer is also evolving and the Latin American consumer is also looking for things that are very different more nutritious you know back to your point about the source and you know what we see as a result of that is the investments you have to make in r&d from an innovation standpoint to even feed the higher aspirations of the Latin American consumer are actually quite real it's quite why we are taking up level of r&d spend in Latin America because we just have to this is another comment I think that in Latin America something that that we have reduced instead of improving and that will be key to be able to use the technology available is doing the free trade agreements the integration but in order to benefit from all these opportunities that we have it's not very clear to me what politicians will do regarding human capital as Gustavo said Latin America has an investment in human capital they are prepared to do the transformations very large transformations if you look up China if you look up China China has sent their best talent to study in the United States or in Europe to any university the best universities you see Chinese and and Indian people studying there you don't see that many Latin Americans and investment in human capital if we don't have it we are not going to be able to integrate we need people who are well prepared who have the knowledge to change the platforms we need people who are trained well trained enough to integrate the industry with agribusiness so I think politicians and countries have to place education education to improve their human capital they have to give it their first priority because otherwise it's not going to happen I think learning it doesn't only happen in universities there's also a know-how transfer between people if you have to change agriculture in Colombia one might say that you have to send students to study at the university but that learning also happens among people who move for the most incredible example is Uruguay Uruguay is the biggest example of of transfer and when the Kirchner's began to persecute us we went to Uruguay now they plant three times as much as when we got to Uruguay so that issue of how know how moves and transfers with people is very important of course universities are important but let us not minimize this opportunity that we have in Latin America the flows the flow of know how the flow of talents moving freely throughout the regions one more question over here good afternoon good night good evening this is for dr. Greco Patel and for dr. Narasima there's a reality today and it is that among the Latin American countries we compete for the access to markets all over the world another reality is that Latin America has the potential to generate production that in the future feeds those markets there's another reality and it is that Latin America we might say that is weak in its production chain and that weakness has been one of the obstacles that is kept it from reaching international markets how can we generate strategies by production chains which is something that is being proposed or what can we do so that Latin America as a whole can gain share in Latin in world markets how can it turn into reality that dream of being the world's supplier of food well I think that the problem was generated by ourselves Brazil was created to protect itself against the world not as a platform to conquer the world our own ideas of protection and fear are the ones that generated the policies the case I know as Mercosur which is very very well known case one of the challenges we have is to prepare to make a Mercosur for the world or a region for the for the world I don't know joining Mercosur with the Pacific Alliance or something and think how from Latin America we can conquer the world what the UK did with the the industrial society that's why I talked about the UK it's a it's a that was a natural empire and now before it was iron an instrument of power now it's food and what can we do to we have to create all the industry to produce food so that we can install ourselves so that we can settle in the world now everything we see that is really important is the is mixed companies I think that in Mercosur the only company who has Brazilian in Argentina shareholders is mine I don't know if you understand how crazy this is it's only one we cannot mix with the Brazilians not only because of soccer we just don't understand each other and so when we create companies with shareholders from Paraguay from Argentina from Brazil from everywhere we are going we're going through the multi-latin companies that's going to be part of the solution to the issues to the problems that you mentioned the value of opening up markets is is very clear there's so much evidence of that you just take a look at berry farming in Mexico right where they were 20 years ago versus where they are now the lack of barriers has really helped that industry become truly world-class when we think about supply chains we are clearly thinking across the Americas certainly across Latin America but the one thing we have to do as a supply chain or as a group of countries in Latin America is find ways to ensure that we are looking at these markets in some ways together and I think there are a lot of hard barriers and some potentially soft ones you know the way labeling is done the way that you have packaging and you know the the the kind of rules and regulations that you have they're not necessarily uniform across various countries so we need to find a way to bring some harmony and harmonize some of these because what it does is it creates supply chains of scale and substance that give you a cost advantage that we could make you very competitive globally so let's start here first before we think about the world one last question we have one minute and a half for that I was well impressed by your position sir about inclusion clearly Colombia is a country where in part the guerrillas says we've been excluded why don't you include it and actually the system of the 12 million farmers that are outside the system of a Colombian consumption is a it's an issue of inclusion we have seen it as an industrial company that when you give them a hand then you include them the impact is incredible you explain some cases but I don't know if there's other countries in India for example where the subject of inclusion has been so important to allow farmers to to increase their productivity and to increase and to also participate in the consumer market because that's not only to give them money so that they're not bored but to allow them to to produce more we hope that's basically also increasing the power the purchasing power of consumers areas versus urban areas we never talk about the difference in GDP in rural areas versus urban areas and if you look at urban India versus you look at rural India there is actually a big difference in GDP between rural India and urban India that's why people migrate from rural India to urban India so if you just take a look at some of the examples recently of what the government's been doing in places like that in terms of building for example rural roads rural roads have basically led to grow the GDP in rural areas that's actually quite high and what it has done is it has kept people engaged it has got them included in the overall growth story and what you're beginning to find is with that kind of investment being made you actually don't leave as many people behind now there's a huge challenge I mean we're talking about very very large numbers of people in a place like India but in a place like Latin America I'm sure it's a very similar thing you make the appropriate investments particularly in the rural areas you create the environment for companies like us to go and participate and to be part of the solution I think we will find that growth will be inclusive it won't be highly polarized to the point where you would say 70 percent of the growth in Latin America is going to come from urban centers it's got to come from more than just that thank you the challenges are many the opportunities too now I have clear the long-term opportunities that we need and we need to depolitize the field yes or you can also do politics but a responsible politics politics because whatever justifies well legs mangustao mi tomanuele ropaulio thank you very much for being with us