The Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), inaugurated the National Phytosanitary Reference Center, an important tool for protecting the country's agricultural heritage. The Center, which cost nearly 400 million pesos, is the only one of its kind in Latin America.
During the inauguration of the facilities, belonging to the National Health Service, Food Safety and Quality (SENASICA), the Chief of Staff of SAGARPA, Flavio Antonio Diaz Miron, said that the Center was of great importance because it would help preserve the country's most important public good: human health.
Diaz Miron spoke on behalf of the head of SAGARPA, Jose Calzada, and said that these were the kind of instruments that had allowed Mexico to position itself as a producer and exporter of food. He also said he was certain that the future would be better.
He said that the country's current agricultural food products were certified, healthier, safer, and had a higher quality than 23 years ago, when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed.
In turn, the chief director of SENASICA, Enrique Sanchez Cruz, said he was proud of this National Center, which has eight laboratories equipped with the latest technology where world-class technicians would work to safeguard and promote the country's agricultural activity.
He also said that the National Government had been working in recent years to create efficient infrastructure to diagnose pests and agricultural diseases, where Mexican technicians can sequence viruses and bacteria, and can have a bank of pathogens that affect the national fields so they can investigate them.
This infrastructure, and the country's valuable human capital, have allowed Mexico to show the world that it is doing a good job in health and food safety, which has allowed the country to be a top competitor in the international markets.
Meanwhile, the chief director of the Service Agency for the Marketing and Development of Agricultural Markets (ASERCA), Alejandro Vazquez Salido, said his job was to position Mexican agricultural products in the domestic and international markets, which would impossible without the work of SENASICA.
The official of SAGARPA asked the institutions to work together with SENASICA so that Mexico and the world get to know the country's strength as a producer of tasty, healthy, and safe food.
In turn, the CEO of Plant Health of SENASICA, Francisco Javier Trujillo Arriaga, said that the Center would employ more than 150 technicians who were committed to plant health. He also said that this activity had evolved in recent years and had earned the respect and recognition of Mexico and the world.
The Center is located in the Unit of Integral Services, Diagnosis and verification of SENASICA in Tecamac, State of Mexico. It consists of five buildings that have eight laboratories, a greenhouse, a quarantine treatment area, a powerhouse, and a building to collect insects and mites that affect the country's agriculture.
This Center strengthens the National Plant Epidemiological Surveillance System; the National Animal and Plant Health Inspection System, and the Program for Export of plant products, and particularly the avocado.
This center will support the Product Systems, various programs of SAGARPA, the Plant Health State Committees, the associations of agricultural producers, and it will provide training for technicians from across the country and Latin America.
Source: la-prensa.com.mx