IICA to share experiences in innovation with the G-20

San Jose, Costa Rica, March 2, 2012 (IICA). The experiences of many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the field of innovation will form part of a wide-ranging international report on how the productivity and sustainability of agriculture can be improved, to be presented by cooperation agencies and international organizations at the upcoming G20 meeting.

The discussions of the meeting, to be chaired by Mexico this year, will focus on how to improve agriculture worldwide as a means of contributing to food security. Ways to ensure a sustainable increase in productivity, in particular in the small-scale family agriculture sector, will be addressed by the G20 Ministers of Agriculture in late May and in June by the Presidents and Heads of State.

As support for Mexico, as Chair of the meeting, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is preparing a report with assistance from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, IFPRI, IFAD, World Food Programme, CGIAR and others.

Victor M. Villalobos, Director General of IICA (whose Member States include five which are also members of the G-20), stated that the vision and experiences of Latin America and the Caribbean would be the focus of the Institute’s contribution to the interagency report, especially with regard to agricultural innovation systems, family agriculture and market access, agricultural health and food safety, and the strengthening of institutions and agricultural development policies.

“The profound knowledge of agriculture that exists at the local, regional and hemispheric levels in the Americas puts IICA in a privileged position to address the objectives identified by the G-20, which considers food security to be a critical issue for the international community,” said Villalobos, who has been underscoring this point in technical and political events since last year.

In June 2011, the Ministers of Agriculture of the G-20 approved a plan of action with five objectives: to improve agricultural production and productivity; to increase market information and transparency; to strengthen international policy coordination; to improve and develop risk management tools for the public and private sectors in response to food price volatility; and to improve the functioning of agricultural commodities’ derivatives markets.

For more information, contact:
miguel.garcia@iica.int