Already existing farmer organizations in various regions of the Americas could provide a starting point for a hemispheric network, bearing in mind the challenges and opportunities that are common to all.
San Jose, 3 May 2023 (IICA) – The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will collaborate with the Argentinian Association of Direct Seeding Farmers (AAPRESID) and that country’s Regional Consortium of Agricultural Experimentation (CREA) to promote greater integration among farmers in the countries and regions of the Americas, with a view to strengthening the sector’s positioning, given its vital importance to global food security.
IICA Director General, Manuel Otero, along with Marcelo Torres and Tomás Coyas, AAPRESID President and Executive Director, respectively, and Christian Feldkamp, Executive Director of CREA discussed the initiatives at a meeting in Costa Rica. The aim is to enable farmers in the Americas to strengthen mechanisms for dialogue and consensus building; encourage and share innovative practices; build bridges between rural and urban areas; foster the inclusion of youth and women and improve the sector’s sustainability.
Director General Otero pointed out that, “Agriculture in the Americas accounts for 24% of global food production, close to 28% of global agrifood exports and is also home to 50% of the planet’s biodiversity. This region is therefore the guarantor of the world’s food, nutritional and environmental security”.
According to the executives of the organizations, in various parts of the Americas, for example, within the customs union of MERCOSUR, there are already regional farmer organizations that could provide a starting point for an organization of hemispheric scope, bearing in mind the challenges and opportunities that are common to all.
“The challenges are not local, but global”, said Feldkamp.
The executives of the Argentinian organizations and the Director General of IICA foresee that the creation of this hemispheric network could begin within months.
AAPRESID President, Marcelo Torres, remarked that, “Rural producers must understand that they are agents of change to drive the transition towards more sustainable agriculture and they are not solely to blame for environmental problems, as others have made them out to be”.
Torres stressed IICA’s active role in ensuring agriculture’s presence in global climate change negotiations, for example, in the United Nations conference on that topic (COP27), held in Egypt in 2022.
“Agriculture was able to secure a place at the same discussion table and there was greater public and private collaboration to demonstrate that the sector can provide part of the climate solutions that the world needs”, he said.
“We must emphasize the leadership that IICA has shown in changing the often negative narrative and in putting agriculture in a positive light”, said the CREA Executive Director.
Manuel Otero explained that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted greater global recognition of agriculture’s importance to humanity and its visibility continues to increase.
“IICA is maintaining that we can create a better world through agriculture, building bridges between the urban and rural and placing farmers at the center of public policies. To achieve this, we will also need more robust institutional structures in the sector”, said the IICA Director General.
Federico Villarreal and Federico Bert, IICA’s Director of Technical Cooperation and Digital Agriculture Specialist, respectively, were also present at the meeting with the APPRESID and CREA executives.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
