"We are a small country, approximately 20,000 square kilometers, but we are in a privileged geographical position and we have microclimates that help us to have different crops. In the 1970s we were the largest coffee producers and had the largest basic grain crop in the region; we also grew fruit and were the largest regional exporter of melon. But all of that faded to a much lower agricultural production", explained Minister Martinez.

Minister Martínez informed that an ‘’Plan Maestro de Rescate Agropecuario’’ has been created. The Plan was defined by the official as ''a compass to visualize where we want to take agriculture in the next ten years''. He clarified, that El Salvador will not seek to generate new technologies, but "to socialize the technology of other countries that have already gone through the path we want to go through".

The official recently visited Spain and gave the example of AlmerÌa: "It was an extremely poor province 40 years ago and today it has a booming economy thanks to the changes made on the basis of technology, research, strategic alliances and strengthening of cooperativism in the agricultural sector".

"We were already importing 80% of the food we consume and that is tragic. We need to become a productive society through the agricultural sector, generating for farmers the right conditions for credit, technical assistance, technological use and strengthening of institutions.

We are learning from friendly countries such as Spain, Holland, Brazil, Costa Rica and Guatemala. With these strategic alliances we are going to take giant steps. It will not take years to change the reality of Salvadoran agriculture", explained the minister of Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG), David Martínez.

The first pillar of the Plan Maestro is the creation of a US$650 million trust fund to provide soft loans to producers of basic grains, vegetables, fruit, fish and meat. "The current banks are not able to attend them and they end up resorting to loan sharks that charge extremely high interest rates and make agricultural production unprofitable", explained Martínez.

Then a second trust fund of US$640 million is planned for the rescue of the coffee sector. "The flavor and varieties of salvadoran coffee," he said, "are fabulous. We want to relaunch coffee agriculture. We are not going to return to being the largest coffee producers in the region, but we want to reach two million quintals of annual production. Thus, there will be a total investment of US$1,290 million in four years to reactivate the agricultural sector and generate two million jobs, attracting new generations and including women".

The third axis, according to Martínez, will be to bring infrastructure to rural areas through productive projects, with schools, streets, public lighting, rural police, libraries, art, education and internet for the communities: "With infrastructure we will try to stop rural dwellers from migrating to the cities and the United States. By creating a decent place to live we will change the reality of the country through the agricultural sector".