Panama announces farming protection measures to tackle food crisis

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(The Hindu) PANAMA (Xinhua): Panamanian President Martin Torrijo announced Monday extraordinary protection measures for the farming sector as part of a food security plan to tackle food crisis.

"Here in Panama (there) doesn't exist and won't be food shortage," Torrijo said during a meeting with representatives from the agricultural and fishing sectors at the Fair of Azuero, one of the most important in the central region of the country.

The Agrocompita Plan reinforced the Program for Aiming the Consumer (PAC) to enlarge the harvesting area of rice to 70,000 hectares, of corn to 20,000 hectares and of beans to 5,000 hectares.

Torrijo said that this plan seeks to efficiently use the country's production potential to tackle the food crisis.

The plan also includes a reduction in import duty on lentils, canned beans, fish and production machinery to protect the farming sector, according to Torrijo.