IICA Director General signs agreement with African agricultural research center FARA and highlights the importance of strengthening collaborative work between the Americas and Africa in digital agriculture, the bioeconomy and climate resilience

San José, April 25, 2024 (IICA). The conducting of collaborative research for the benefit of agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa, in areas including soil regeneration, water management and the promotion of innovation, will be one of the results of an agreement on joint work signed between the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

During the signing of the agreement by Manuel Otero, Director General of IICA, and Aggrey Agumya, Executive Director of FARA, the head of the inter-American agency proposed to his African counterpart that the joint work focus on four specific areas of action.

Firstly, the holding of meetings between researchers from the two continents to share knowledge and experiences that would then serve as the basis for concrete actions in fields such as digital agriculture, the bioeconomy and climate resilience, with the participation of specialists from the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), and entities such as FONTAGRO.

Secondly, Otero suggested that, for example, innovations introduced for soils in Brazil in the country’s biome known as the Cerrado, could be replicated in the African savanna, facilitated by virtual meetings with the participation of technical specialists from IICA and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

IICA and FARA will shortly be announcing actions aimed at adapting for Africa the Living Soils of the Americas initiative, which is spearheaded by IICA and the scientist Rattan Lal, winner of the 2020 World Food Prize and Director of the Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration (C-MASC), at Ohio State University.

The IICA Director General also suggested creating a platform made up of scientists in the Americas and Africa to promote agrifood research for which international financing would subsequently be sought. Fourthly, Otero invited FARA’s senior management and African ministers of agriculture to take part in IICA’s Executive Committee meeting in July 2024.

This committee, made up on a rotating basis of ministers of agriculture from 12 countries in the Americas, is one of the Institute’s governing bodies and meets once a year.

“I’m sure that this year more than 12 ministers from our region will be taking part, given the importance of the challenges facing agriculture today. In that meeting, we can present details of this strategic partnership, and we must demonstrate to our counterparts in the Americas and Africa that we are pragmatic, proactive, and productive,” Manuel Otero said.

“We are extremely pleased but, above all, very committed to implementing this agreement, to building a better future for the rural inhabitants of both continents,” the IICA Director General added.

“This mechanism will serve to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between regions. Working with IICA, FARA aims to make further progress on innovation, research and extension related to good practices in agriculture,” the Executive Director of the African forum, Aggrey Agumya, said during the signing of the agreement.

More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int