Expressions of support and calls for new coordinated actions were made at the first meeting of 2022 between IICA and the diplomatic corps accredited to Costa Rica, held in person at the Institute’s headquarters
San José, 22 April 2022 (IICA) — The ambassadors and heads of mission of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, Canada, the United States and Spain expressed their support for food security actions carried out by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and stated the need to consolidate dialogue and regional understandings to address a complex scenario dominated by major food and energy price increases.
Expressions of support and calls for new coordinated actions were made at the first meeting of 2022 between IICA and the diplomatic corps accredited to Costa Rica, held in person at the headquarters of this international organization specializing in agricultural and rural development, after two years of meetings that took place virtually due to the health crisis caused by Covid-19.
Addressing the heads of diplomatic missions in Costa Rica and the Costa Rican Deputy Foreign Minister Adriana Bolaños, IICA Director General Manuel Otero spoke of the effects of the crisis in Eastern Europe on agrifood systems in the Americas, noting that this context comes in addition to the major economic and social consequences of a two-year pandemic and a worsening of the climate crisis.
“We are witnessing an overlapping of crises. We are overcoming the crisis caused by Covid-19, but the climate situation is extremely serious. Drought has impacted almost 50% of grain production in Paraguay, severely affected Brazil and Argentina, while regions of Chile are facing water stress not seen in over a decade”, said Otero.
He added, “The conflict is transmitted to the region both through restrictions on agrifood trade, fertilizer trade and prices, and the acceleration of food and energy price increases”.
Otero compared agrifood trade figures between Russia, Ukraine and Latin America and the Caribbean, commenting on the regional dependence on fertilizer imports from Eastern Europe and warning about an increase in the already widespread food vulnerability of some countries in the region, especially the Caribbean, and about the cost of food imports. He also commented that “the wheel of agriculture must continue to turn” and recalled that the activity must be seen and considered as “a central tool for peace”.
The Director General of IICA also referred to the effects of energy price increases on transport costs and the destructuring of logistics chains, and gave an overview of the measures adopted by different countries in the world to mitigate the inflationary effects of the war, such as limits on exports in the case of productive countries and the adoption of measures to encourage the domestic production of fertilizers.
“Exporting countries are cautious about turning over surplus and net importers are trying to stop food prices from increasing”, he said.
After this overview, Otero said that the current situation puts food security, and by extension agricultural activity and rurality, at the top of the global agenda. He underlined the importance of the Americas for their role in guaranteeing food and nutritional security and the environmental sustainability of the world, and said that alliances between productivity and the environment must be strengthened.
“It is time to move from consensus to action. We have to act and promote trade and regional integration, and accept that the road to sustainable development will make investment in science, technology and innovation indispensable. The third way is to promote a new generation of public policies for the 16.5 million family farmers in the Americas, by strengthening cooperative and associative undertakings”.
After Otero’s presentation, the diplomats present at the meeting exchanged information and ideas, highlighting the role of IICA as a promoter of collective action for the benefit of countries.
“I am grateful for IICA’s ongoing support and its capacity to keep us informed. The transparency, visibility and accountability of IICA make it a serious and reliable institution that is always close at hand”, said Chilean Ambassador Oscar Alcamán.
For her part, Deputy Minister Bolaños noted that “we live in a very unequal region of the world and the situation with Russia and Ukraine ultimately affects the most vulnerable countries and groups in our countries. A situation where people are not well-fed becomes fertile ground for other far more serious scenarios”, she said, addressing issues such as climate change and migratory flows.
The Brazilian Ambassador, Antonio Francisco Da Costa, also participated in the debate, stressing the ideas of “sustainable development as a central concept” and underlining the importance of the agricultural sector to contribute to energy security. Noela Pantoja, Business Attaché of the Peruvian Embassy, mentioned the “risks of protectionism” and called for “a strategic perspective from the region as a whole” that would help, “along with IICA’s potentiality”, to develop autonomous alternatives, such as in fertilizer production.
The Canadian Ambassador, Elizabeth Williams, highlighted “the importance of cooperation,” while Anesa Ali-Rodríguez, the Business Attaché for Trinidad and Tobago, mentioned the “growing cost of food imports”.
The ambassadors of Uruguay, Carlos Alejandro Barros, and Ecuador, Bolívar Vicente Torres, also highlighted the importance of multilateral organizations such as IICA, and stressed that cooperation is an essential activity, especially for small and vulnerable countries.
Dominican Republic Ambassador Mayerlyn Cordero Díaz congratulated IICA “for its close work with the countries”, and said that the organization is “a very important ally for agricultural development, and therefore for economic and social development”.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the diplomats visited the Interpretive Center for Tomorrow’s Agriculture (CIMAG). This innovation center combines agriculture and education, and is promoted by IICA in partnership with Microsoft, Bayer and Lego (through Aprender Haciendo), among other companies, to highlight the key role of new technologies in the agricultural sector through virtual and interactive experimentation and the Fab-Lab innovation laboratory for the agriculture sector.
At the end of the visit, Deputy Foreign Minister Bolaños concluded that “IICA plays a fundamental role in the region because it works with key issues that are increasingly relevant”.
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