Six hundred researchers will gather next week in Uruguay to discuss ways to assist producers in accessing the real benefits of innovation in agriculture.
San Jose, Costa Rica, October 26, 2012 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will represent Latin America and the Caribbean at the world’s most important meeting on agricultural innovation, scheduled to take place next week in Uruguay.
An IICA delegation, headed by the Institute’s Director General, Victor M. Villalobos, will participate in the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2), to be held in Punta del Este, from October 28 through November 1, 2012.
The summit, which will bring together more than 600 researchers, is intended to promote changes in agricultural innovation systems, in order to benefit smallholder farmers and help reduce poverty and hunger.
The latter have been exacerbated by the instability of food and agricultural input prices, as well as the effects of climate change.
GCARD2 is organized by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), which comprises the six international systems devoted to the issue. IICA serves as the Technical Secretariat for the Latin American system, known as the Forum for the Americas on Agricultural Research and Technology (FORAGRO).
At a meeting held in San Jose, Costa Rica, in October 2011, the ministers of agriculture of the hemisphere instructed IICA to promote agricultural innovation as a means of addressing challenges such as food security and climate change.
A preparatory FORAGRO meeting was held in Lima, Peru, in August of this year, in anticipation of GCARD2. The meeting was attended by almost 200 representatives of regional innovation institutions, farmers’ organizations, NGOs, and experts from IICA, international research centers, and the cooperation programs formed by researchers from each of the hemisphere’s regions (North, South, Central, Andean, and Caribbean).
The participants agreed that the Americas can help feed the world and adapt agriculture to climate change, thanks to its biodiversity and family agriculture sector, among other comparative advantages. If these factors are to be harnessed, however, technological innovations must increase, as must the access of producers to such innovations.
In the words of the Director General of IICA: “The Punta del Este meeting will take place in a favorable environment, as agriculture repositions itself worldwide as a driver of development, a source of income in rural areas, and a strategic sector for countries. If global challenges are to be met, however, more research, extension, and innovation will be needed.”
GCARD2 will focus on three main themes: partnerships for innovation, foresight for impact, and capacity development. At the previous summit, held in Montpellier, France, in 2010, a roadmap was developed to transform global agricultural research and achieve the established objectives. Six strategic goals emerged as a result:
1. To determine priorities and actions, driven by development needs, in order to plan current and future agricultural research.
2. To promote equitable partnerships and shared solutions among agricultural researchers and research clients.
3. To increase investment in innovation: more human, institutional, and financial resources.
4. To improve human and institutional capacities.
5. To develop linkages between agricultural research and development programs and policies.
6. To demonstrate the development benefits of agricultural innovation to society.
For more information, contact:
arturo.barrera@iica.int
