Immense suffering caused the death of Professor Carlos Falquez Batallas, an undisputed coastal political leader with recognized merits in social, economic and sports media that expressed immense pain at his passing. However, it is possible that its agricultural virtues are unknown, the raison d’être of this column. Undoubtedly, he was one of the few Ecuadorian leaders of national roots with a clear agricultural awareness that is so necessary, necessary for Ecuador to overcome, convinced of the importance of agriculture and its fundamental role in achieving the well-being of the people.

This special ability as a teacher and leader of the masses, worthy of general imitation, was manifested in the historical events that I will recall and emphasize, which are connected with the defense of the activities of the banana, obligations handed down without limitation of time and place, especially by the legislative authority, so much so that the proclamation of the current law that regulates the activity of bananas, an agricultural asset, the axis of growth in the province of El Oro, attributes to his perseverance, knowledge and efficiency, which, not seeing the first world in him, he accepted as his own to the extent that his capital, the jewel of the heart, rightly accepted as the banana capital of the world, became a modern city, tourist attraction and productive investments from the Mayor’s Office which he brilliantly held.

Rejection of new banana plantations

His zeal for the application of the norm, especially in respecting the minimum support price for farmers, was unlimited, so much so that he imposed his authority from the provincial government so that alleged exporters or trans-national exporters who do not comply with the requirements respect the officially established levels. To do this, he used the force of his imposing personality, protecting affected manufacturers, exercising his role as a legislative watchdog to enforce order on those who broke the law, regardless of their prominence.

Sigatoka control failure

This is the model of a political leader that the sector needs, who is convinced of the agricultural importance, who pays tribute to it, who is convinced of how fundamental it is to preserve the noble fruit from the infestation of deadly diseases that threaten its survival, is not controlled by the public inefficiency that manifests itself in all areas of cultivation , where phytosanitary controls against black sigatoka and the so-called moko bacteria were lost, as well as the absence of convincing actions to stop the tropical race of Fusarium wilt 4. Falquez supported radical changes in the ways of dealing with out-of-control pathogens. He strongly supported plans to seek resistant varieties derived from the current Cavendish without reliance on unproductive imported materials and with only limited tolerance.

Behaviors like those demonstrated by the famous deceased are what farmers claim are leaving the ostracism they are in without hearing concrete proposals from the finalist presidential candidates to reverse it. (OR)