Andean Group - July 2011 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Agricultural Revolution law: At the end of June President Morales promulgated a law designed to boost domestic food security and overhaul the agricultural sector. Backed up with a 10-year US$5.0bn investment plan, the law is one of Morales' most ambitious efforts to address food security. Recent social unrest was triggered by high food prices, after bad weather and crop losses caused food imports to soar, reaching US$255m in the first five months of 2011, up 73.84% year-on-year. Among other provisions, the law establishes a new insurance scheme for farmers, ‘Pachamama', which Morales unveiled in part several weeks earlier [RA-11-06]; creates two new state-owned companies to oversee the production of seeds and fertilizers; and pledges to make more credit for small- and medium-sized farmers available via the state-owned national development bank and private banks. The law was opposed from within Morales' support base due to two articles (15 and 19) which allow for the extended use of genetically modified (GM) seeds in the country. This represents a reversal of a May 2010 presidential decree which stipulated a five-year transition period to phase out GM crops altogether. While banning the import of GM seeds for crops native to Bolivia, or those posing a risk to the country's ecosystem or the population's health, the two articles provide for the controlled entry and sale of non-native GM crops, including soya, rice, sugar and sorghum. To date, GM seeds were limited to soya export crops only.

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