Planadas is the first coffee growing municipality in the department of Tolima, with more than 14 thousand hectares of coffee, and the third best coffee in Colombia. Of the 42 municipalities that the department has, 38 are coffee growers.
In a coordinated effort with the Mayor Office of Planadas, municipal coffee Associations and more than a thousand coffee growing families, soldiers of the National Army prevent prevent the loss of more than 14 thousand hectares of coffee due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia.
This is how, with the protection of the soldiers, farmers from Planadas were able to save their harvest. In addition, the National Army provided security with checkpoints at the borders of the municipality, to prevent outsiders from entering the municipality during the coffee harvest, and thus prevent the spread of this virus across the region.
Jhon Jairo Hueje, Mayor of Planadas, said: "The National Army played a very important role in this initiative. They were vital in the coordination with the checkpoints and in the articulation with the entire community. Infinite thanks to all the soldiers because they played a decisive role in saving the coffee harvest.
Every year about four thousand people from all over the country entered the municipality for the coffee harvest. Currently, due to the pandemic, and in order to prevent the mitigation of the Coronavirus, the municipality established an employment strategy that allowed people who were unemployed in the urban sector to go to the rural sector to pick coffee. As a result of this initiative, the economy still stable in Planadas.
Lieutenant Colonel Álvaro Enrique Gómez Porras, commander of the Operations Battalion No. 18, added: "In an articulated work of all the institutions of the municipality and with the direction of the ZEUS Operational Command of Stabilization and Consolidation, we have been working together so our coffee growers can, in the best way, carry out and take their harvest forward, through security work at the entrances to the rural and urban areas. We will remain committed to the colombians, especially in these times of pandemic”.
Source: press-Comprehensive Action and Development Support Command-CAAID
