The Vice President of Argentina, Amado Boudou, inaugurated the meeting and stressed the need for governments to lend political support to the technical efforts to improve the use of water in agriculture.
Buenos Aires, September 24, 2013 (IICA).The Acting President of Argentina, Amado Boudou, inaugurated the Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas 2013 today. The participants in the activity include delegations from 34 western hemisphere countries and a number of special guests from other parts of the world.
One of the purposes of the meeting is to unveil a hemispheric agenda for integrated water management designed to increase the amount of water available and improve access to the resource, in order to produce the food and raw materials necessary for humankind.
The event will also provide the framework for the biennial meeting of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), the highest-level governing bodies of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
The other speakers in the inaugural ceremony included the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Argentina, Norberto Yauhar, and the Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos.
Vice President Amadou Boudou pointed out that, “Integrated water management is a technical decision that must be viewed from a political perspective.”
Minister Yauhar endorsed that opinion. “Political decisions by the governments of the Americas are needed to support the development of infrastructures so that water is used as efficiently as possible,” he observed.
The Director General of IICA called for the leadership of the ministries of agriculture of the Americas in the areas of food, competitiveness and sustainability to be extended to water management.
“The construction of a new paradigm for agriculture, to make it more productive, competitive, inclusive, and sustainable, calls for the efficient use and integrated management of water resources. Productivity should begin to be measured not only in yield per hectare but also in terms of unit of water consumed,” he remarked.
The meeting, which concludes on September 27, is being held in Campana, Province of Buenos Aires. During the activity, the ministers of agriculture and other heads of delegation will issue a declaration with commitments aimed at improving the use of water in agriculture at the hemispheric level.
International specialists will support the deliberations of the ministers tomorrow (September 25), in a forum on the subject of integrated water resources management.
During the meeting, the ministers will also be studying the report on the situation of and outlook for agriculture in the Americas, prepared by IICA, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as well as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The IABA will also be electing the Director General of IICA for the period 2014-2018. The Government of Mexico has nominated the current Director General, Víctor M. Villalobos, for a second term of office.
For more information, contact:
patricia.leon@iica.int
pconsig@minagri.gob.ar
