The seed and the future: A new root for Tello

• Guided by AGROSAVIA, today’s youth sow hope in the countryside.

 

Tello, Huila. November 19, 2025. In Vereda (small suburban countryside district) Sierra Gramal of Tello, Huila, where the sun embraces the furrows, a different kind of harvest has matured. It is not only of fruits, but of futures. In the classrooms of the Rural Educational Institution Nicolás García Bahamón, where the blackboards look out onto the landscape, a silent yet profound sowing has come to fruition: the National Strategy for Rural Youth. There, among tools and books, the students, their voices carrying a new brightness, confessed: “Thank you for encouraging me, for helping us see the other side of the countryside.” Corporación colombiana de investigación agropecuaria – AGROSAVIA, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development did more than bring knowledge; they lifted a veil, revealing agriculture not as a past, but as a promising future.

The research team from the Nataima Research Center did not depart without leaving their indelible mark: they installed an innovative system to produce high-quality Gros Michel banana seed. With the scientific backing of the institution and sanitary surveillance support from the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA, for its Spanish acronym), the educational community will have the capacity to produce high-quality seed, positioning the institution as a technological benchmark for the region.

This nucleus is the beating heart of the project, a living organism that integrates:

- A Propagation Tunnel that whispers the secrets of plant genetics.

- A Nursery and a Mother Orchard, the lineage and cradle of new generations of crops.

- An Intensive Multiplication Orchard, where life expands with purpose.

All these components have drip, micro-sprinkler, and sprinkler irrigation systems, where water, an essential element for life to germinate and thrive, is used efficiently.

In parallel, the Home Garden for aromatic plants and vegetables was modernized, and a vermicomposting system was installed for sustainable nutrient management. This entire production circuit, equipped with micro-sprinklers and drip irrigation, supplies the institution’s processing plant, completing a self-sufficient cycle from the field to transformation.

Innovation also touched the livestock sector, where sustainability took shape in flesh and bone, leaving installed capacity with:

- The harmony of Silvopastoral Systems, where trees and pasture coexist as companions, providing food and comfort to cattle.

- The foresight of the Forage Bank, the green pantry for critical times.

- The precision of an artificial insemination kit, a key for young people to write, with their own hands, the next chapter of bovine genetics.

These interventions establish a new standard of excellence for local livestock farming.

Commitment, like a good seed, needs fertile ground. The Mayor of Tello, Fernando Alipio Solano Gómez, joined this sowing, encouraging young people to rediscover the heartbeat of their territory. The objective, today, is a reality that sprouts: the seed of the countryside is no longer only in the soil; it has been planted in the hearts of the new generations. Now, they look at Tello not with the nostalgia of one who leaves, but with the hope of one who takes root and prepares to flourish.

Today, this banana-producing region, which once faced adversity, looks toward a promising future. AGROSAVIA, acting as a catalyst for science and development, arrived to write a new chapter around the Gros Michel Banana and agricultural production. In this rebirth, the hands of young students sow not only a crop, but the seed of a sustainable future for a land full of vitality.