A congress organized by CABI, IOBC, IICA, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, and the University of Costa Rica (UCR) addressed the relevance of intelligent use of biological controllers to increase the sustainability of regional agriculture.

Fifteen representatives from the National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) of the Andean Community countries, along with specialists from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), participated in a regional phytosanitary intelligence simulation as part of the implementation of the Regional Phytosanitary Intelligence Center project.

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will create a Special Fund for the Caribbean to promote initiatives and actions aimed at assisting countries in the region in meeting the goal of reducing their multi-million dollar food import bill by 25% by 2025.

The forum highlighted the growing prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in various regions, noting that the proportion of undernourished people has increased, reaching 735 million in 2022, with Asia and Africa being the most affected.

A technical mission from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras visited Argentina and toured various productive and industrial dairy sector enterprises in the countryside as part of a South-South and Triangular Cooperation project aimed at strengthening and providing resilience to small farmers in the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America.