By Eric Viramontes, president of VISER

This month I had the pleasure to meet with Haiti's ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Guy Lamothe. During this meeting, we had an interesting conversation about the public policies necessary to combat hunger.

I have had the impression that for a long time governments have had their lines crossed on how to differentiate public policies directed toward social and rural development from those that seek to promote agricultural industries. The dilemma is to be effective with both.

Automatically, speaking of rural development is to think of strategies whose goals should be to mitigate extreme poverty and hunger.

I fully agree with the intention of these concepts. I believe strongly that governments and society should have these ideals among their priorities. Policies should not be crossed but aligned.

I remember during my school years, once I heard one of my teachers say, "Well-implemented capitalism is the purest form of socialism."

Reflecting on the interesting conversation I had with Ambassador Lamothe, the concept made perfect sense to me that equal opportunities depend on job possibilities.

If today's goal is to improve our countries' and our neighbors' capacity to feed the population - and make societies in which rural zones have better life opportunities - then maybe policies directed at business and agriculture would also be the best for sustainable social development.

It is clear to me that we are not going to get rid of hunger by only producing more food. We need to generate better living conditions through the creation of employment and income in the agriculture sector. To do that, we need to bring business and industry to underserved areas.

Let innovation lead the way! Activating the rural business sector is perhaps the best policy to fight extreme poverty.

Governments today must boost investment in agriculture and generate more agroindustries that activate micro-economies. Policies should focus on investor confidence and security to create new rural businesses.

On the other hand, better technologies should be incorporated to achieve the efficiency necessary to improve productivity, utility and sustainability. This in turn will promote human development; better technologies will require a more qualified workforce and, therefore, will be better paid.

Other important policies include support of the agriculture export sector, promotion of new markets, establishment of better channels and logistical infrastructure, and investment in promotional campaigns. Since agricultural exports were activated in Mexico, jobs have been created that improve conditions for millions of families.

Creating quality jobs allows a population to remain active and far from scenarios that cause crime. It also prevents its inhabitants from emigrating to other countries in search of better opportunities. Having work is a basic element of all developed countries.

People have the right to decent, quality work that promotes growth opportunities for workers and their families.

We must keep in mind that agriculture is an activity that strongly promotes local consumption, purchases of domestic products, generation of exports, attraction of foreign currency and conservation of quality work, among many other national benefits.

Do not forget that domestic consumption is the beginning of a virtuous circle toward economic recovery. The purchasing power of a country is the trigger.

So, with the previously expressed, I believe public policies for social development also drive businesses to conserve existing jobs, create new ones, improve technical capacity and seek out human well-being.

Follow Eric Viramontes on Twitter at @ervs_viramontes.

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