Colombia’s agriculture minister, Indalecio Dangond, told Caribbean coast farmers not to plant rice and urged them to grow cashew instead, as growers report losses and lawmakers warn against abandoning a strategic crop. The ministry hasn’t published a plan to make that advice policy, leaving producers facing a price slump without a public answer to a refinancing request.
Dangond made the remarks in Urumita to farmers from La Guajira and Cesar. “Rice is no longer a business. Don’t plant rice, rice is not a business. It is very risky, it needs a lot of water,” he said, according to El Colombiano. Infobae quoted him saying rice prices “are very volatile,” with farmers able to sow on good hopes and harvest into lower prices.
He listed cashew, coconut, oil palm, pomegranate and plantain as options for La Guajira. “Plant once and think in 25 years,” he said, contrasting permanent crops with rice, which requires fresh investment every six months.
The cost to growers
In Huila, paddy rice fetched about 230,000 pesos, or about US$69, per carga in November 2022, Alci Cortés of the growers’ movement Dignidad Arrocera told Diario del Huila. A carga is 125 kilograms of unmilled rice. The price later fell to 169,500 pesos, about US$51, and stood near 193,200 pesos, about US$58, in late September. Cortés put the break-even price at 208,000 to 209,000 pesos, about US$63.
“We have been working at a loss for two years,” Cortés said, estimating that 60 to 70 percent of growers had lost money. Dearer fertilizer added about 1.2 million pesos, or about US$360, to the cost of a hectare in 2026, he said. Cortés linked a partial price recovery to lower supply after weather cut output in some areas.
Fedearroz, the national growers’ federation, said on 29 September that irrigated sowing had fallen about 30 percent as rivers ran low. In Huila, about 2,500 producers sow some 47,000 hectares each semester, grower Martín Vargas told Caracol Radio. He said the region has suitable land and mills built for rice.
Food supply and policy
Julio Roberto Salazar, a Conservative who chairs the lower house farm committee, said producers shouldn’t be told to abandon a strategic crop. Senate vice-president Alejandro Ocampo noted that cashew can take five to seven years to mature. Petro, who left office in August 2026, called Dangond’s advice “miserable towards the people of Colombia” in a post on X. He argued that cutting cereal output would increase the risk of hunger if devaluation and drought occurred together.
Fedearroz asked the ministry on 29 September to help refinance growers’ debts after low prices in the 2025 and 2026 harvests. It said millers in Casanare raised paddy prices only after about 80 percent of the crop had been sold. The ministry ordered a forensic-style review of funds managed by the federation, El Colombiano reported, citing about 552 billion pesos, or about US$167 million, from import auctions and a farm levy over 15 years. Board chair César Augusto Saavedra said the federation was open to any review and that the Comptroller General’s office already checks the funds yearly.
In Tolima, grower Juan Pablo Rodríguez told Caracol Radio that farmers must rethink crops before rice imports become duty-free in 2030. Rice prices in neighboring Ecuador neared US$50 a quintal after a 39% jump, the article reported. Tolima had about 4,870 rice growers in 11 municipalities, according to departmental figures cited by Caracol Radio on 4 October 2026. The article warned that fewer plantings, combined with El Niño, could tighten domestic rice supply in coming harvests.
Whether Dangond’s advice will become policy remains unclear. The ministry had published no plan, Fedearroz’s refinancing request had received no public answer, and growers in Huila and Tolima sought a round table with the ministry, millers and Fedearroz. No meeting date had been announced. No direct Fedearroz reply to Dangond’s remark had been reported by Sunday evening.