Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Competitiveness Inclusion Sustainable development

Meeting of delegates of the countries of the Americas gets under way

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

At an activity being held prior to the most important ministerial meeting on agriculture in the Americas, the delegates are discussing an inter-American declaration intended to promote agricultural productivity and rural inclusion.

Representatives of 31 countries of the Americas attended the meeting.

Cancun, 19 October 2015 (IICA). The ministerial delegates of the countries of the Americas today began presenting the positions of their respective States on productivity, development, and rural inclusion, with a view to consolidating an inter-American declaration aimed at promoting joint activities on those issues.

This activity is a curtain raiser to the Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas 2015, the most important high-level forum for inter-American agriculture, which will begin on 20 October on the Riviera Maya.

The delegates, the direct representatives of the ministers of agriculture of the Member States of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), will engage in discussions before issuing a mandate on Thursday designed to guide actions in the region’s agricultural sector over the next two years.

The Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos, was the first to speak at the meeting, underscoring the great responsibility that the delegates have to construct shared desires and common proposals on the topic of agriculture.

“The position that each one of you will have to express is a reflection of the thinking of the heads of the agricultural bodies, and ultimately, of the vision your countries have of agricultural development”, remarked Villalobos.

The Meeting of Delegates is being chaired by Ricardo Aguilar Castillo, Under-Secretary of Food and Competitiveness of SAGARPA in Mexico.

Villalobos informed the meeting that the final declaration approved by the ministers of agriculture would be presented to the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS), as it forms part of the Summits of the Americas process in which the continent’s Heads of State and Government are directly involved.

In concluding, Villalobos stated that “the Declaration is not binding in the legal sense, but as a political expression, it is of great value because it serves to send a message of Inter-American unity and commitment to the agricultural sector”.

The meeting of delegates will conclude tomorrow. The countries taking part are Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Uruguay, the United States and Venezuela.

More information: héctor.iturbe@iica.int

Share

Related news​

Montevideo

October 20, 2025

PROCISUR marks 45 years driving scientific and technological integration in the Southern Cone

PROCISUR supports more than 2,100 research projects and 200 germplasm banks across the entire region.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Brasilia, Brasil

October 17, 2025

Macarena Valdés and Marco Aceituno, small-scale Chilean producers who have thrived under challenging conditions, will take part in the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas in Brasília

Macarena Valdés and Marco Aceituno, creators of a farm where food production has flourished despite the severe drought that has afflicted Chile in recent years, will be among the speakers at the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas 2025, to be held from November 3 to 5 in Brasília.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Lima, Perú

October 17, 2025

Eddie Abarca López, a Peruvian coffee farmer and manager who is banking on coffee to improve the quality of life in his community, has been named an IICA Leader of Rurality of the Americas 

Eddie is President of the Gold Coffee Perú association of agricultural producers – a group of 600 coffee farmers from Cajamarca and Amazonas. In his work, Abarca has managed to consolidate a model combining quality, sustainability and social development.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins