IICA’s Director General and Argentina’s Minister of Agriculture crafted a work agenda focusing on issues such as territorial development, family farming and the strengthening of regional economies.
Buenos Aires, 24 January 2020 (IICA) – Manuel Otero, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), during a working visit to Argentina, met with the country’s Minister of Agriculture, Luis Basterra, and jointly defined a work agenda related to the issues of territorial development, family farming and the strengthening of regional economies.
Otero also held meetings with both Argentina’s Minister of Social Development, Daniel Arroyo, and with Roberto Salvarezza, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. Their discussions addressed support by the international organization for government programs on food and nutritional security and also the Institute’s ability to contribute, by way of its powerful hemispheric knowledge management platform.
Otero reported that, “We found Minister Luis Basterra and his team to be extremely receptive to IICA’s proposals and we were in complete accord regarding the agenda of issues to be pursued, particularly with respect to territorial development, family farming and the bolstering of regional economies”.
The head of the agricultural and rural development organization added that the primary objectives of this agenda are rural retention and value adding. To this end, specific mention was made of organic agriculture, as a sector that offers tremendous growth opportunities for Argentinian production.
In the meeting with Minister Basterra, the two reviewed actions taken by the Technical Secretariat of the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) in the sphere of an expanded MERCOSUR, the priorities of the Argentinian government with respect to sectoral matters and technical cooperation provided by IICA.
On the other hand, in the meeting with Minister Arroyo, which was also attended by Caio Rocha, IICA Representative in Argentina, and Jorge Werthein, Special Advisor to the Director General, the Institute placed the experience of its technical team at the disposal of the Argentinian government, with a view to bolstering the rural dimension of its official program to combat hunger and give family farming a more dominant role in production and trade.
While in Buenos Aires, Otero also met with Christian Asinelli, Undersecretary of International Financial Relations for the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs in the Office of the President, with whom he discussed the importance of rural areas in the social pact that is being promoted by the government of President Alberto Fernández.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
