Brasilia, 2 December 2021 (IICA) – The potential of the bioeconomy and greater implementation of irrigation projects to enhance productivity in Brazil’s rural areas were some of the main topics addressed during a mission of Manuel Otero, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), to Brasilia, where he was welcomed by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, Tereza Cristina.
The IICA Director General thanked the Minister for her support and for joint efforts to benefit agriculture and rural well-being in the region.
Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture played an active role in the UN Food Systems Summit and in the preparatory process, which included a ceremony in July, where a document was presented at the Brazilian Embassy in Rome, outlining 16 basic messages about the unparalleled role of agriculture and farmers, as key actors in food production and food security. The document established a consensus among the countries of the Americas to adopt at the global forum.
The document was jointly developed by the ministers of Agriculture of the Americas, under the coordination of IICA.
Minister Tereza Cristina is the current Chair of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), IICA’s highest governing body, and has worked closely with the Institute to coordinate regional efforts to monitor and tackle African swine fever. Her recent announcement of her country’s USD 500,000 donation to assist in tackling the disease in Haiti and Dominican Republic, two affected countries, was highlighted and applauded by Otero.
Having been re-elected for a new four-year term as Director General of IICA, Otero invited the Minister to his swearing-in ceremony, which will take place on 17 January 2022 in Costa Rica.
Following the meeting with Otero, the Minister commented that, “The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture has partnered with Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply in various initiatives to strengthen agriculture, such as technical cooperation for the promotion of sustainable development, food security and competitiveness, as well as initiatives to reduce rural poverty and increase social and production inclusion, among others. It has been a successful partnership”.
In the coming days, a cooperation agreement will be signed between MAPA, IICA and the German Development Bank (KfW) for the project, Agricultural Production Chains for Forestry Conservation in the Legal Amazon, with a view to promoting innovation in meat, timber and soybean production. The five-year project will outlay resources valuing 25.5 million euros.
The project is the latest in a vast portfolio of partnerships between IICA and MAPA, which includes efforts to consolidate the sustainable development support strategy for rural areas; to strengthen rural governance instruments; to modernize MAPA’s strategic management; to bolster the Brazilian Agricultural Protection System; and to support the implementation of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), through the Brazilian Forestry Service.
Tereza Cristina and Manuel Otero discussed the challenges facing agriculture and compliance with agreements under the Conference of the Parties (COP26), which was held in November in Glasgow, as well as the potential of the bioeconomy and the new generation of ethanol, among other potential areas for Brazilian agriculture.
Otero pledged that, “IICA stands ready to support MAPA and to work to strengthen agricultural and food systems in the region. IICA’s recent accreditation to the Green Climate Fund will enable us to implement projects funded under this credit portfolio and will grant us access to resources to support climate change adaptation and resilience initiatives for agriculture and rural areas in the countries of the Americas”. He also pointed out that the Institute is in the final stage of accreditation to the European Union.
Prior to the meeting with Minister Tereza Cristina, the Director General paid a visit to Brazil’s Minister of Rural Development, Rogério Marinho, with whom he discussed possible collaboration in areas relevant to the latter’s portfolio, such as irrigation, basic sanitation and water security.
Rogério Marinho maintained that IICA has a “historic partnership” with Brazil.
He remarked that, “The partnership with IICA is a policy of the Brazilian state and is longstanding. We have invested in joint projects, specifically aimed at including and changing the lives of vulnerable communities that need to be included. And that is the underlying thrust of our cooperation with IICA.
One of the main areas of focus of the joint efforts is irrigated agriculture. Of particular note is the staging of the 1st National Seminar on Irrigated Agriculture on Smallholdings, an event which initiated discussions resulting in the preparation of a National Action Plan for Irrigated Agriculture, which seeks to promote public policies to expand the water supply and to boost production activities, in conjunction with water supply programs for smallholdings.
Otero stated that, “The partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development (MDR) is vital to IICA. These issues speak to the future and to sustainable development, demonstrating that our agendas completely coincide, particularly in the area of irrigation, because water is a finite resource that is one of the world’s top priorities”.
Another area of collaboration aims to incorporate ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria into the Ministry’s projects.
In October, the MDR began to implement the Green Investment Strategy for Regional Development, with a view to incorporating these criteria into its infrastructure projects. Initially, these actions will focus on basic sanitation and water security. To align the infrastructure projects with ESG best practices, the Ministry partnered with IICA and other institutions.
Otero also met with the Secretary General of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), María Alexandra Moreira López, with whom he discussed the bioeconomy in the Amazon region.
ACTO is involved in monitoring the tree and plant cover in the Amazon and the water resource agenda.
The IICA Director General also visited the diplomat Augusto Pestana, who is the President of the trade promotion agency, Apex Brasil, and they spoke about a possible technical cooperation agreement to promote Brazilian family farming products.
The delegation accompanying Manuel Otero in Brazil includes Gabriel Delgado, the IICA Representative in that country; Fernando Schwanke, Director of the Institute’s Project Management Division; and Jorge Werthein, Special Advisor to the Director General.
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