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Publié sur avril 1, 2021

Producing households have a protocol to prevent and reduce COVID-19 infections in the agricultural sector


San José, Mar 26 (elmundo.cr) - Families engaged in agricultural production have a protocol to prevent and mitigate COVID-19. This is aimed at both the producers and civil servants of the sector entities that provide them with extension, training and care services, so that they can carry out the work in the field, applying precautionary measures that prevent contagion of the disease .

In a particular way, the protocol was designed for the use of the agricultural sector institutions that are part of the Agro Bridge Strategy, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Rural Development Institute (Inder) and National Production Council (CNP), whose process of visiting producer homes will restart in the first week of April.

“With the sector, we have already built about 20 protocols for the prevention of COVID - 19. This in particular, will allow us to continue with the work of Puente Agro, developing intervention plans in producer households to improve their production and processing conditions. life, taking the prevention and mitigation measures of COVID-19,” expressed the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Renato Alvarado Rivera.

"Having a practical tool to identify risks and define prevention and mitigation actions for the COVID-19 disease is important to guarantee the continuity of agro-productive activities and the availability of food, as well as to strengthen the reactivation of the sector," he commented Andrea Padilla, Assistant Representative of FAO programs in Costa Rica, an organization that supports these efforts of the Costa Rican Agricultural Sector.

The  Protocol for the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and mitigation measures for producer households in the Puente Agro Strategy  is available at the following link https://bit.ly/3cnrw6T. Together with the accompanying guide, they provide key information on the symptoms of COVID-19, ways of contagion, ways of prevention, care and other information.

The guide, through visual resources and simple language, explains the importance of maintaining proper hygiene habits, always using the respective personal protective equipment and conducting good management in production processes and at home.

In addition, materials such as presentations, flip charts, and folders, among others, were developed to facilitate the work of extension workers, both to work with their colleagues (internal disseminators of information), and with producer households.

The preparation of the guide and the protocol is an effort of the Joint Program: strengthening the Bridge to Development Strategy to break the cycle of poverty at the local level, with a gender and environmental perspective, with technical support from the International Labor Organization ( ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In Costa Rica, the implementation of the Joint Program is in charge of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the ILO, UN Women and the FAO, which have the support of the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator. On the part of the Government, the Program is led by the Mixed Institute of Social Assistance (IMAS) and is made up of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), the MAG and the National Institute for Women (INAMU).

The FAO Representation in Costa Rica supports the implementation of the Joint Program by strengthening capacities and promoting agro-productive initiatives with indigenous women in the canton of Buenos Aires, Puntarenas.

Originally published on Elmundo.cr