Constitution

Plurinational State of Bolivia 2009 Constitution

Table of Contents

TITLE III. COMPREHENSIVE SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Article 405

Comprehensive, sustainable rural development is a fundamental part of the economic policies of the State, which shall prioritize its actions to encourage all communitarian economic undertakings and those of the group of rural actors, placing emphasis on food security and sovereignty, by means of the following:

  1. The sustained and sustainable increase of agricultural, livestock, manufacturing, agro-industrial, and tourist industry productivity, as well as their commercial capacity.
  2. The articulation and internal complementary form of the structures of agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial production.
  3. Achievement of better conditions for economic exchange of the rural productive sector in relations to the rest of the Bolivian economy.
  4. The importance and respect of the rural native indigenous communities in all dimensions of their life.
  5. The strengthening of the economy of the small agricultural and livestock producers and of the family and communitarian economy.

Article 406

  1. The State shall guarantee the sustainable comprehensive rural development by means of policies, plans, programs and comprehensive projects that encourage agricultural, artisan, and forestry production, and tourism, with the goal of obtaining better exploitation, transformation, industrialization and commercialization of renewable natural resources.
  2. The State shall promote and strengthen the rural economic productive organizations, among which are the artisans, the cooperatives, the associations of agricultural producers and manufacturers, and the micro, small and medium communitarian agricultural enterprises, which contribute to the social economic development of the country, in accord with their cultural and productive identity.

Article 407

The objectives of the policy of the State for comprehensive rural development, in coordination with the autonomous and decentralized territorial entities, are the following:

  1. To guarantee food security and sovereignty, prioritizing the production and consumption of agricultural foods produced in the territory of Bolivia.
  2. To establish mechanisms for the protection of Bolivian agricultural production.
  3. To promote the production and sale of ecological agricultural products.
  4. To protect agricultural and agro-industrial production from natural disasters and inclement climate, and geological catastrophes. The law shall provide for the creation of agricultural insurance.
  5. To implement and develop technical, productive, and ecological education, at all levels and in all modalities.
  6. To establish policies and sustainable projects, obtaining the conservation and recuperation of the soil.
  7. To promote irrigation systems for the purpose of guaranteeing agricultural and livestock production.
  8. To guarantee technical assistance and to establish mechanisms of innovation and transfer of technology in the entire agricultural productive chain.
  9. To establish the creation of a seed bank and centers of genetic research.
  10. To establish policies to encourage and support the productive agricultural sectors that have natural structural weaknesses.
  11. To control the exit and entrance into the country of biological and genetic resources.
  12. To establish policies and programs to guarantee agricultural sanitation and food safety.
  13. To provide productive, manufacturing and industrial infrastructure and basic services for the agricultural sector.

Article 408

The State shall determine the incentives for the benefit of small and medium producers for the purpose of compensating for the disadvantages of unequal exchange between agricultural and livestock products and the rest of the economy.

Article 409

The production, importation and commercialization of genetically altered products shall be regulated by law.