Gabriel Delgado, IICA representative in Brazil and technical secretary of the CAS; Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of IICA; and Carlos Fávaro, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil.
Brasilia, 5 March 2026 (IICA). At a meeting of the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS), the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Muhammad Ibrahim, presented details of the progress that has been made in drafting the 2026-2030 Medium-term Plan (MTP), the roadmap for his term of office as the head of the specialized agency for agricultural and rural development. The ministers who make up the Council then proposed other areas that should be included as priorities for work.
The MTP, which is a key tool for orienting IICA’s technical cooperation actions, is being prepared under the leadership of Ibrahim, a renowned Guyanese agronomist who took over as head of the inter-American organization last January.
The MTP is drawn up with input from stakeholders that includes constant consultations with IICA’s Member States to ensure that the cooperation offered is tailored to the needs of the countries of the Americas.
The CAS is a forum for policy consultation and the design of coordinated actions that is made up of the ministers of agriculture of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. This week’s meeting was held in Brasilia.
IICA is in charge of the Council’s technical and administrative secretariat.
The Director General of IICA announced that he intends to strengthen the Institute’s role in developing the opportunities offered by technological innovation, particularly in the fields of biotechnology, computer science and artificial intelligence.
“Other issues that IICA needs to prioritize over the next four years are the growing importance of agricultural natural resource management, given the ongoing structural transformation of the sector, and the impact of transboundary diseases and pests on rural economies”, he said.
He also highlighted the agricultural diversity of the various regions of the Americas, which calls for “differentiated strategies” for providing cooperation in Mesoamerica or the Caribbean.
He emphasized the opportunities that exist for countries with more highly developed agriculture sectors, as well as IICA’s role in promoting the sharing of knowledge across the continent.
The CAS meeting was chaired by Carlos Fávaro, Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, who was accompanied by Deputy Minister Cleber Soares.
Also taking part were the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay, Alfredo Fratti; the Minister of Productive, Rural and Water Development of Bolivia, Óscar Mario Justiniano, who took over as the chair pro tempore of the CAS; the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Paraguay, Marcelo González; the President of the National Animal Health and Quality Service (SENACSA) of Paraguay, José Carlos Martin; the Undersecretary for Agri-food Markets and International Insertion at the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Argentina, Agustín Tejeda; and the outgoing Minister of Agriculture of Chile, Ignacia Fernández.
Subject areas
Ibrahim said he expected IICA’s 2026-2030 MTP to focus on four main subject areas:
- international trade, regional integration, agribusiness and production chains;
- agricultural health, food safety and quality, and biosecurity;
- science, technology and innovation for productive development; and
- sustainability of agricultural natural resources, with emphasis on global and national trends that affect the use of water, soil and biodiversity.
He also anticipated that the plan would consider the very different conditions and needs of each of IICA’s five regions (Northern, Caribbean, Central American, Andean and Southern).
Another key objective would be the full incorporation into IICA’s mandate of the concept of food systems, which goes beyond agriculture to encompass all activities related to food production and consumption.
The Director General remarked that a special effort would be made to strengthen IICA’s technical capabilities, and that an operational strategy would be designed to mobilize and draw on technical capabilities from across the region.
“We have to acknowledge the growing complexity of agri-food systems, which means considering more issues and more social actors. Today we are witnessing a reconfiguration of agri-food trade in an uncertain international environment. And we also need to take into consideration changes in consumption habits, the demand for food and the emergence of new nutritional and food security challenges”, Ibrahim told the ministers.
The countries also proposed other issues for inclusion in the MTP, stressing the importance of the participatory approach to its elaboration.
The most important points mentioned were the need to prioritize increases in agricultural productivity and efficiency; to speed up innovation and the incorporation of technologies; and to place biotechnology, artificial intelligence and new solutions at the service of producers.
The ministers also called for efforts to boost the region’s integration into international markets, highlighting the importance of agriculture for that goal.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
