Aura María Duarte, in Agricultural Affairs, and Martha Carvajalino, in Rural Development, are the new co-equipers of Minister Jhenifer Mojica.
The Minister of Agriculture, Jhenifer Mojica Flórez, sworn in this Tuesday, June 13, the new Vice Ministers of Agricultural Affairs and Rural Development, Aura María Duarte Rojas and Martha Viviana Carvajalino Villegas, respectively. Since the entity was created, in October 1913, it is the first time that three women are in charge of the Ministry. Now, they will lead the task of accelerating the implementation of the agrarian reform and the purpose of turning Colombia into an agri-food power.
In the act of possession, the head of the agricultural portfolio stressed that with the direction that the Ministry is now taking, the commitment is to a country model with the essentials for the communities.
“This is the moment in which we want to flourish the peasant theme, because we feel that peasant family farming is the one that can generate that food security that this country and the world so much needs,” said the minister.
Aura María Duarte is a veterinary zootechnical doctor, with a master’s degree in Development Studies and Management. For more than a decade she has been linked to the agricultural sector in management related to productivity, public policy, economy and logistics. Her experience and leadership has focused on coordinating sector development and planning processes at the national, regional and local levels.
She was the director of the Livestock, Fisheries and Aquaculture Chain of the Ministry and with her arrival at the Vice Ministry the challenge of consolidating a traceability strategy was raised, among others. That is, knowing where, how and when food is produced and who produces it. Also, what is the route they take both within the country, and on an export route to contribute to the construction of Colombia as an agri-food power.
For her part, Martha Viviana is a lawyer, specialist in constitutional law and Master of Laws with an emphasis in research from the National University of Colombia. She has more than 17 years of experience working as a consultant on agricultural and environmental issues in public entities and international cooperation agencies.
Since 2016, she has been working as judicial attorney for environmental and agrarian matters of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation. She arrives at the Ministry with three main objectives: to reactivate the national agrarian reform system, activate territorial nuclei for agrarian reform that allow land redistribution, and advance in the consolidation of the peasant proposal.
Minister Mojica also appointed Claudia Liliana Cortés López, as director of the Rural and Agricultural Planning Unit, UPRA. She is a business administrator, holds a master’s degree in Economics from the National University of Colombia and is currently studying for a master’s degree in Markets and Competition at the Externado University.
Cortés has already worked at UPRA on different projects and analysis fronts such as the development of the Productive and Social Ordering Plans for the property for Antioquia, Nariño and Cesar. In addition, he managed to consolidate the issues associated with the distribution of rural land ownership in Colombia and was in charge of updating the procedure and preparing the rural property distribution bulletins.
Similarly, Minister Mojica announced that Felipe Clavijo will be the new secretary of Finagro.