The Mexican’s second consecutive term as Director General of IICA will run from 2014 to 2018.
San Jose, Costa Rica, 15 January 2014 (IICA). Víctor M. Villalobos was installed as Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for a second four-year term today, with senior Costa Rican officials, representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in this country, the Secretary General of the OAS, and the ministers of agriculture of Costa Rica, Argentina and Mexico in attendance.
The guests of honor at the ceremony included the First Vice President of Costa Rica, Alfio Piva; the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza; and agriculture ministers Gloria Abraham (Costa Rica), Carlos Casamiquela (Argentina) and Enrique Martínez y Martínez (Mexico).
Casamiquela is also Chair of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), IICA’s highest governing body, which comprises the ministers of agriculture of the 34 countries of the Americas. At its most recent meeting, held in Argentina in September 2013, the IABA reelected Villalobos by acclamation. The Director General’s first term at the helm of IICA was from January 2010 to January 2014.
The IICA Director General announced that during his second term of office the Institute would continue to focus its efforts on four overarching objectives: increasing the productivity and competitiveness of agriculture, promoting the adaptation of agriculture to climate change, achieving the inclusion of all producers in value chains, and encouraging changes to make it possible to achieve food security throughout the hemisphere.
“IICA needs to make clear and relevant contributions to help achieve those transformations; it must have the capacity to deliver measurable and tangible results for all the beneficiaries of its technical cooperation. It also has to place more emphasis on the diffusion of knowledge about innovative production methods,” Villalobos observed.
The Vice President of Costa Rica, Alfio Piva, said that his country had witnessed the fruits of the Institute’s contribution to the modernization of his country’s agricultural sector. “IICA champions a new science-based paradigm of agriculture and, with a holistic vision, is promoting the inclusive development of rural areas. The reelection of Víctor M. Villalobos shows the positive impact that this approach has enjoyed,” he added.
Minister Carlos Casamiquela remarked that, “the 34 member countries have endorsed the cooperation actions that the Institute has carried out over the last four years. IICA possesses all the human and technical capabilities and accumulated experience required to help us achieve our strategic goals in agriculture.”
Enrique Martínez y Martínez, Secretary of Agriculture of Mexico, commented that one of the challenges facing IICA was to help create the conditions that would enable rural families to remain in the countryside. “With the IICA Director General’s leadership, the countries of the hemisphere have developed synergies and shared a wealth of successful experiences, and we expect those processes to continue,” he added.
The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, explained that his organization and IICA would continue their joint activities aimed at stimulating, promoting and supporting the efforts of the countries of the Americas in the areas of agricultural development and integrated water management.
“We must continue this common effort to ensure that our countries’ water resources are managed in such a way as to strengthen our productive capacity,” Insulza added.
A citizen of Mexico, Villalobos is a researcher with a distinguished record in the areas of agriculture and natural and genetic resources. In his country, he also served as Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Under Secretary for Agriculture. He has a PhD from the University of Calgary, Canada and was awarded doctorates Honoris Causa by the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and Paraguay’s Universidad de Asunción.
A snapshot of the first four years
According to the management report on Villalobos’ first term, the Institute is currently implementing 544 projects and cooperation actions under its six technical programs, namely innovation for productivity and competitiveness; agricultural health and food safety; agribusiness and commercialization; territories and rural well-being; natural resources management and climate change; and food security.
IICA’s activities are designed to support the efforts of its 34 member countries to develop their agricultural sectors and improve living conditions in rural areas.
More than half of the projects are financed with external resources, to the tune of nearly USD 160 million per year.
The principal achievements of Villalobos’ first term include the strengthening of the Institute’s technical capabilities, the decision to place innovation at the heart of the support provided to the countries, the application of territorial management models to empower rural communities, the strengthening of the integration of small farmers into value chains and the boosting of national capabilities and the public institutional framework for agriculture in IICA’s Member States.
Other issues addressed were the harmonization of agricultural standards and the parallel promotion of food security and sustainable agriculture, and a process of reengineering was undertaken within the Institute aimed at making better use of the available resources and strengthening transparency and accountability.
For further information:
evangelina.beltran@iica.int
