San Jose, 28 April 2023 (IICA) – Countries of the Americas endorsed the technical cooperation initiatives of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, highlighting the organization’s support for family farmers—in particular the input of women and youth—its push for science and innovation; and its recognition of the value of agriculture as part of the solution to climate change.
Officials of the ministries of Agriculture of various nations in the hemisphere were participating in a meeting of IICA’s Special Advisory Commission on Management Issues (SAMCI), in which they called for increased collaboration to tackle the challenges facing humanity, while underscoring the decisive role of the Americas in bolstering global food security and natural resource conservation.
Participants included Ariel Martínez, Undersecretary of Policy Coordination at Argentina’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries; Roberto Perosa, Secretary of Commerce and International Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply of Brazil; Daryl Nearing and Aleksandar Jotanovic, Deputy Director and Senior Multilateral Affairs Officer, respectively, of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Donald Willar, Multilateral Affairs Manager in the Foreign Agriculture Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); César Vinicio Arreaga, Deputy Minister of Food and Nutritional Security of the Ministry of Agriculture of Guatemala; María de Lourdes Cruz Trinidad, General Coordinator of International Affairs of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) of Mexico; Leticia Torres, Director General of Planning at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Paraguay and Vikash Bhagirath, Coordinator of Suriname’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
IICA Director General, Manuel Otero, presided over the meeting, informing the participants about the organization’s priority agenda for the rest of the year.
The role of the Special Advisory Commission is to promote regular exchange of information and ideas between the IICA Director General and the Member States regarding administrative, financial and strategic initiatives and affairs of the organization. It is intended to serve as a conduit to facilitate discussion between IICA and the ministries of Agriculture and the Americas, to which the Institute is accountable.
Nine member States serve on the Commission, six of them as permanent members (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, United States, Mexico and Venezuela), with the remaining three serving as non-permanent members (currently Guatemala, Paraguay and Suriname).
“We are committed to the welfare of farmers and thus we will make every effort to ensure the development of IICA”, said Donald Willard of USDA. “We thank the Director General for his dedication to resolving the challenges facing agriculture in the Western Hemisphere”, he added.
Alexsandar Jotakovic expressed Canada’s support for the work that IICA is undertaking, highlighting its efforts to afford women a greater role in production and community life in rural areas. “If we wish to guarantee the availability of food—he said—we must support women’s projects.”
Ariel Martínez of Argentina maintained that, as we look to the future, the relationship between climate change and food security concerns all countries. “It was very important for the agriculture sector of the Americas to have a presence at the last United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), and we must make an effort to also be at the upcoming meeting in Dubai”, he stressed.
Representing Mexico, María de Lourdez Cruz proclaimed that, “The countries need IICA to be strong, capable and innovative in tackling the new agrifood challenges” and proposed that climate change should be tackled by providing alternatives that guarantee environmentally friendly production.
On the other hand, Vinicio Arrega indicated that Guatemala recognized the value of IICA’s work and he invited the Director General to continue along on the same path.
In support of producers
Manuel Otero stated that the input and recommendations from the countries was fundamental to facilitate the continued development of IICA as an organization to assist producers in enhancing the transformation of the hemisphere’s agriculture sector, which plays a critical role at the global level.
The Director General explained that IICA is redefining its role based on three premises. Firstly, the Institute maintains a global perspective from its position in the Americas. Secondly, it is seeking to create bridges with the public and private sectors, aiming to foster consensus building to mobilize collective action. Finally, it has an open-door policy and stresses the forging of partnerships.
Otero argued that, “In times of crisis, we must deepen cooperation, both within the hemisphere and with the rest of the world. We are the major food exporting region on the planet and the upward trend will continue in the future. We are the guarantors of the world’s food security and environmental sustainability”.
The Director General gave an overview of IICA’s efforts to seek consensus among countries in the Americas, culminating in the documents that the region presented at the United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021 and at COP27 last year. These consensus documents emphasized the indispensable role of agriculture and farmers in global food security.
In this regard, the organization was relying on efforts to once again to mount a pavilion at COP28, in Dubai, in late 2023. “We are going to support our Member States in climate negotiations. Agriculture must have strong teams to defend the importance of agricultural transformation in environmental discussion forums”, said Otero.
“No country can save itself alone. We need to increasingly work together, recognizing that strength lies in unity. The greater the crisis, the greater the need for cooperation”, he concluded.
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