Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Territorial Development and Family Farming

The program will focus on collaboration with governments and social, economic and entrepreneurial family farming (FF) cooperatives, with a view to promoting the design and application of public policies aimed at fostering systemic competitiveness in rural areas, mid-sized cities, production units and businesses. The program will also seek to integrate various concepts into cooperation activities, such as the notion of institutional quality, public investment policies and the promotion of private investment and associative efforts.

To this end, the program will continue to contribute to the design and implementation of policies, programs and projects to facilitate the inclusion of FF production in agrifood systems, as well the development of a new generation of public policies. There will be a focus on associative strategies that facilitate agricultural competitiveness, ecosystem sustainability, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, the reduction of depopulation and migration, and coordination and investment in public and private enterprises in rural areas. The program will work with countries to:

  • Promote and support the development of a new generation of public FF policies that drive the development of rural territories and agrifood systems. The aim is to ensure the inclusion of family farming production units and to increase their supply and demand capacity, through their promotion and inclusion in effective and efficient cooperative enterprises, by way of public-private partnerships.
  • Facilitate the social and economic inclusion of FF in agrifood systems, through technical cooperation activities.
  • Contribute to enhancing FF competitiveness in rural areas and agrifood systems, by developing associative capacities, with a focus on promoting cooperative efforts.
  • Spearhead actions to strengthen the capacities of regional policy integration organizations and institutions to stimulate discourse on territorial development- and FF-related public policies.

Specialist

Program Manager

 

Technical team

 

Advisory team

  • Álvaro Ramos, Uruguay
  • José Emilio Guerrero, Spain

Contact us

Mario León Frutos

Program manager

mario.leon@iica.int

Technical Cooperation Direction

dct@iica.int

Compartir

Multimedia

Explore our videos and discover IICA’s impact on agriculture and rural development throughout the region.

Canada

July 24, 2025

Leaders Panel: Cultivating Tomorrow’s Agriculture Today

Canada

July 24, 2025

Leaders Panel: Cultivating Tomorrow’s Agriculture Today

Asunción, Paraguay

September 16, 2025

Nidia González, who champions the empowerment of women farmers in Paraguay and strives to raise living standards in her community, has now been recognized as an IICA Leader of Rurality of the Americas 

Nidia is President of the Comité de Santo Domingo, a group that seeks to improve the income and standard of living of the entire community.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Madrid, España

September 16, 2025

The IICA Director General, during a working visit to Spain, met with the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas; visited the Spanish Congress and was honored by Universidad de Córdoba

In his meeting with Planas, Otero reflected on the close collaboration with Spain and characterized the Institute’s technical cooperation as systemic, efficient and collaborative, providing benefits to more than ten million farmers and actively undertaking 358 projects to enhance food security and rural development.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

San José, Costa Rica

September 10, 2025

Erick Geovany Ac Tot, a cocoa entrepreneur who promotes high-quality cocoa and the preservation of ancestral trees in Guatemala, is named an IICA Leader of Rurality 

Erick Geovany Ac Tot—a prominent Guatemalan cocoa entrepreneur who has been assisting small farmer organizations, promoting high-quality cocoa production and preserving heirloom trees for years, in addition to being a cocoa taster—has been named a Leader of Rurality of the Americas by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). 

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins