Mexico to host the meeting of IICA’s Executive Committee where the crucial issue will be discussed.
San Jose, Costa Rica, June 14, 2013 (IICA). Mexico will host the first stage of the process of hemispheric dialogue aimed at improving the use of water in agriculture. The annual meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), which will be taking place in Mexico City from June 17-18, will focus on this issue.
Delegations from 13 countries will be taking part, some of them led by the respective Minister of Agriculture. The meeting will be inaugurated by Enrique Martínez y Martínez, head of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) of Mexico, the host country.
The Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos, will be presenting a report on his administration, which took office in 2010.
The Executive Committee is one of IICA’s governing bodies and reports to the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA).
The discussions on the sustainable use of water that will kick off in Mexico next week will conclude in Argentina in September, when the IABA meets in Buenos Aires, under the aegis of the Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas.
At that meeting, the ministers will endeavor to construct a hemispheric agenda to improve the sustainable use of water in agriculture, based on a technical proposal prepared by specialists from IICA and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Argentina.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, agriculture accounts for 70% of the water used. The region is faced with major challenges, such as the need to feed a growing and increasingly urban population, and must adapt its production to variability and climate change, factors that affect water availability.
“Agriculture needs a new paradigm to meet these challenges, one based on innovation and backed by a solid institutional framework, because it has to use natural resources in a more sustainable way and be more productive, competitive, and inclusive,” the Director General of IICA has stated.
During the meeting of the Executive Committee, candidacies for the position of Director General of the Institute for the period 2014-2018 may be presented. The Government of Mexico has already announced its support for Víctor M. Villalobos, who is seeking reelection.
For more information, contact:
evangelina.beltran@iica.int
