San José, 7 May 2026 (IICA). The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Muhammad Ibrahim, and the Executive Secretary of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC), David Martínez, agreed to work on an agenda aimed at strengthening Mesoamerican agriculture that will include key issues such as insurance, guarantee funds, and financing for the sector.
Ibrahim and Martínez, former Minister of Agriculture of El Salvador, met at IICA Headquarters in Costa Rica. During the meeting, held to strengthen operational and mutual support frameworks for resource management and project design, Martínez extended an invitation to the IICA Director Generaltoparticipate in strategic meetings that the CAC is set to hold in the coming weeks.
The Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) is the body of the Central American Integration System (SICA) responsible for proposing and implementing regional agricultural, forestry, and fisheries policies and projects. It is composed of the ministers of agriculture of Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Its main objective is to strengthen food security and competitiveness in the region.
Also addressed in the meeting were the issues caused by the El Niño phenomenon in the region, and the need to build tools that facilitate decision-making based on scientific evidence and lessons learned.
The concern stems from forecasts of an intense El Niño phenomenon in Central America this year, an event that would bring severe droughts to the areas known as the Dry Corridor, high temperatures and a rainfall deficit.
Martínez’s visit to meet with the IICA Director General also made it possible to strengthen institutional ties and underscore the importance of joint support and a coordinated and expanded regional agenda, including issues such as agricultural health, food security, migration, and market development.
The Central American region has become a very important actor for IICA in terms of project management and technical and administrative support for national programs in support of agriculture,making the relationship with the CAC Executive Secretariat and other stakeholders strategic in nature.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
