Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Agriculture Rural development

IICA and the Government of Chile join forces to define development strategies

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

More than 200,000 rural families will benefit from this cooperation.

Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero, expressed his support for the development plan “Impulso a la Araucanía”.

Santiago, 17 April, 2018 (IICA). The transformation and modernization of rural cooperatives in Chile modeled on successful experiences in Costa Rica, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands, and the potential for cooperation in developing the Araucanía region through agricultural activities, were some of the issues addressed at a meeting in Santiago between Chile’s Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker Prieto, and the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero.

The meeting was part of the working agenda in Chile of the head of IICA, the regional organization that promotes agricultural development. While in Chile, Otero visited the Araucanía region accompanied by the governor and former Minister of Agriculture, Luis Mayol, and also met with heads of major Chilean family farming organizations, businessmen and agricultural leaders.

Otero expressed his support for “Impulso a la Araucanía” (“Boost Araucanía”), the development plan that President Sebastian Pinera’s administration has implemented in the region. The IICA head also stressed the leadership role that his organization is playing in providing strategic input to its member states, and also highlighted IICA’s positive experiences in facilitating cooperation for rural territorial development in countries such as Peru, Brazil and Mexico, among others.   

“IICA, an institution with a wealth of experience in issues of social and territorial cohesion in rural areas, views this as a moment of great opportunity to promote technical cooperation within the context of shared interests with the Chilean authorities to enable prosperity in Araucanía”, stated Otero.

IICA’s head recalled that successful development programs “devised by IICA for depressed areas in Brazil, Mexico and Peru, always in conjunction with central and regional governments, have focused on developing strategic plans to instill civic responsibility and facilitate human resource training”.

Otero’s visit to Chile is part of a series of activities stipulated under the Strategic Alliance Declaration signed by IICA and the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture in March, soon after the country’s new administration assumed office.

The focus of IICA’s cooperation programs in Chile will be to strengthen rural associativity, modernize cooperatives and to foster productive alliances, food safety and agricultural health, training of the agricultural labor force and hydro resource management.

 

For more information:

José Alfredo Alpízar

Press and Outreach Coordinator 

jose.alpizar@iica.int

Share

Related news​

San José, Costa Rica

September 29, 2025

In the final session of IICA’s Digital Agriculture Week, digitalization was highlighted as key to improving traceability in agriculture

With a view to strengthening food security and promoting sustainability and transparency in the agricultural supply chain, a group of technology leaders from academia, government, and the private sector explained why the digitalization of the agrifood sector is urgently needed to revolutionize traceability, from production through to final consumption.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Panel de expertos sobre fondos de inversión en AgTech durante la Semana de la Agricultura Digital del IICA. Imagen muestra líderes internacionales discutiendo estrategias de financiamiento para la innovación agrícola, con transmisión en vivo y participación multilateral.

San José, Costa Rica

September 26, 2025

At the Digital Agriculture Week organized by IICA, proposals were made to build investment bridges that strengthen the AgTech ecosystem in the Americas.

During the 2025 Digital Agriculture Week, organized in Costa Rica by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), more than 21 agtech companies took part in a strategic dialogue with investment funds specializing in agrotechnology. These funds presented their financing models and shared experiences on how to scale digital solutions in agriculture across the region.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

San José, Costa Rica

September 26, 2025

Bayer, Farmtastica and IICA inaugurate vertical farm in Costa Rica that combines digital technologies and urban agriculture for sustainable food production

Bayer, the Chilean startup Farmtastica, and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) inaugurated the AgroBox 360 controlled-environment vertical farm in Costa Rica, showcasing the advantages of using digital and low-cost technologies for sustainable food production.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins