My name is José Francisco Gutiérrez Escalante, I am married, I have 2 daughters and a granddaughter who lives with me, I live in Chile. Professionally I have a background in agronomy and in the field of public management. Laborally I have dedicated myself to work as a consultant and advisor in different public services of the government, I have worked in the area of small enterprises and the formation of entrepreneurial and organizational skills has men and women.
I live in Chile which is divided into regions, I was born and raised in the most rural region of Chile, in a small, dry and simple town called Marchigue; we have a population of approximately six thousand people, we are made up of simple people. Our people as well as my family has been dedicated to the traditional agriculture of dry land, its historical productive matrix has been preferably of traditional agriculture such as: Sheep raising, rainfed crops such as wheat, some cereals and also pine plantations for timber production. Our town also has some dry land vineyards for the production of chicha and liquors.
Currently our town has changed its productive dynamics since the annual rainfall has decreased alarmingly, we believe that due to the effects of climate change, the effects of this have put at risk the traditional agricultural activity.
In the last 20 years Marchigue has presented a real revolution since large companies have come to Marchigue and have acquired important areas of land which have converted our dry land to irrigated land through the incorporation of irrigation technology, this has allowed the introduction of vineyards, olive plantations for oil production, water is obtained from the groundwater through deep wells that have ended with the availability of water from the ancestral wells of our farmers.
Living in Marchigue and observing the effects of the lack of rainfall such as the disappearance of the estuaries and associated flora and fauna, the decrease in the quality of the meadows, and consequently the significant disappearance of livestock breeding as well as the significant drop in yields of traditional crops, we have set ourselves an important challenge.
Today we have a dream that we intend to carry out through an organized work for which we have formed an organization. Our organization is committed to seek strategies of solution to elaborate a new development model for marchigue, we are certain that the cause has much to do with the effects of global warming and that this will no longer be reversed therefore the current scenario will not give us a chance to return to its initial state marchigue; therefore we must seek strategies in terms of adaptation and mitigation of the state in which we find ourselves.
My dream is to be able to offer for the future to our future generations a sustainable alternative of development, we believe that it is related to a new economic matrix for Marchigue linked to tourism.
