Climate change and food security set to dominate the discussions in which delegations from 20 countries are taking part.
Mexico City, June 17, 2013 (IICA). The meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), bringing together delegations from 20 countries, is under way in Mexico, with a call for joint efforts to meet the challenges posed by development, climate change and food security.
Ricardo Aguilar, the Under Secretary for Food and Competitiveness of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), inaugurated the meeting and asked the delegates to “establish the principle of “growing together” as a goal, as joint efforts are the best way to tackle the challenges posed by climate change, such as droughts, frost, pests, floods…”
According to the host of the meeting, the objective is for “all people in all of our countries to have access to good quality food.”
“The countries need to develop all their potential to make competitive and sustainable agriculture in the Americas possible,” observed Víctor M. Villalobos, the Director General of IICA. Twelve nations in the hemisphere are taking part in the event, along with eight observer countries and Spain, which is an associate member of the Institute.
Mr. Villalobos called for food security to be made a priority: it should be “at the heart of domestic and international agendas. IICA is committed to the efforts of several countries [in this field], some of which have already been implemented, while others are ongoing.”
He singled out for special mention the effort initiated by Mexico known as the “Crusade against Hunger,” a battle in which everyone needed to get involved. “If only all the wars in the world were like this one,” he remarked.
The meeting of the Executive Committee marks the beginning of a hemispheric dialogue aimed at improving the integrated use of water in agriculture; the delegations will receive details of the progress of a technical proposal on this vital issue, on which experts from IICA and the Government of Argentina have been working.
The discussions will conclude in Argentina in September this year, when the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA) meets in Buenos Aires, under the aegis of the Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas.
For more information, contact:
evangelina.beltran@iica.int
