Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

Among lhe specific plans drafted to date, for which international support is urgently needed, lhe following are outstanding: i) Plan for orchads and vineyards. This plan considers planting and improving orchards, establishing nurseries fer fruit– tree seedlings, and creating an adequate agroindustrial and commercial infrastructure and an intensive program of vine cultivation and wine making. Total investments fer this program are indicated below in dollar equivalents: Local currency Foreign currency TOTAL US$ 129,600,000 34,600,000 US$ 164,200,000 Approximately 50 percent of the above total had been invested by 1967, the balance will have been invested by 1979-80, and the program can be considered in full operation. ii) Lívestock-raising programo The livestock-raising program covers large Iivestock such as cows and bulfs. There is also a plan fer poultry and pigs, as well as for building flocks of sheep, which were seriously neglected during the last three years. The livestock program includes not only technical assistance and animal health but also large imports of basic inputs and important invest– ments in the livestock-raising infrastructure. The amounts required are large, and the program wi 11 probably not be implemented with the speed that has been assumed in some of the estimates currently under discussion. Local currency Foreign currency TOTAL US$ 174 million 258 mili ion US$ 432 million In the first draft ofthe program it is assumed that 75 percent of the program would be carried out before 1978. Considering the country's internal financial difficulties and capa– city to move internal resources, as well as the technical feasibility of developing the livestock program when a complete transfermation of the land in its most fundamental aspects is under way, the speed estimated for the program's implementation seems exaggerated. Perhaps results less ambitious than those given by the indicated speed should be considered. ¡ji) Marketing and industrialization. This is one of the weakest aspects of Chilean agriculture, In a very preliminary program, a total of$13 million has been set aside ferthe completion of some specific works. already under construction. IV) Seed centers. The production of sufficient quantities of genetic seeds must be considered a vital aspect of the agricultural picture. It is possible fer Chile to be an exporter of genetic seeds. Planned investments in this special item total $ 23 mili ion, most of it (92 percent) in local currency. v) Rural electrification. A longstanding program in Chile, rural electrification has both a social and án econo– mic character. For this program there is a total of approximately $ 60 million, which, according to our estimates, should last until 1980. . During the next few years, the agricultural and livestock-raising program will undoub– tedly be the country's most importanl effort to deal with nutrition, employment, and the social progress of the enormous rural population. The results are not easy to measure, and thanks to the great number offactors affecting the program simultaneously, it is impossible to predict that the results will be achieved at the desired speed. 236