With more than 10 years of experience in Atacama La Grande, SQM Litio has promoted sustainable agriculture alongside local farmers through consulting, training, and co-creation of projects, which are central pillars of its agricultural program.
Advice and training for farmers in Atacama
The Atacama Fertile Land (ATF) program , part of SQM Lithium's Shared Value division, has been operating in the region for over 10 years, supporting agricultural processes that are integral to the community initiatives the company implements in its Sustainability plan. Working alongside the program's team of agronomists, the program has provided technical assistance, on-site training, inputs for crop development and pest control, and participation in community projects with the various communities within the San Pedro de Atacama municipality. These initiatives aim to improve the area's productive capacity and food self-sufficiency.
In 2024, for example, various training courses have been held for farmers, including one highly requested by farmers, such as the vine pruning workshop, which marks a milestone in the development of the crop, in order to have a good production for the following year.
“We are looking at the topic of pruning, which is very important, because there is always something to learn, because wherever we work we will always find some details like in Toconao with the climate, the water; and that is the idea, to produce the best we can to obtain a better quality product,” said Ángel Puca, farmer and owner of the property where these pruning workshops were held.
Innovation in the irrigation system
The Irrigation Academy , in its second version, is a course focused on the knowledge, use and maintenance of technified irrigation systems and, on this occasion, had 20 farmers from San Pedro de Atacama and Toconao, in addition to 10 students from the Lickan Antai High School specializing in agriculture, who successfully completed the five modules of theoretical and field classes, carried out together with KILIMO for 3 months.
Israel Vélez, ATF Manager of Shared Value at SQM Lithium, pointed out that “to evaluate the sustainability of the projects developed, this year we developed a process called “Monitoring, Reporting and Verification” together with KILIMO , which will allow us to know the water consumption for irrigation in an alfalfa production project under technified irrigation, before and after the automation of the system, projected for the end of this year, which will give us better and more information about the improvements we are implementing.”
SQM Litio's agricultural program has had a positive impact on the region, focusing on supporting and mentoring farmers. Thanks to this collaborative effort, many have managed to improve their productive capacity and the quality of their crops.
We invite you to explore more initiatives like these in our Community section , where we share our collaborative work with communities to promote projects with local and sustainable meaning.
