The Africa-Americas Summit aims to lay the groundwork for greater collaboration between the two continents in the face of the threats to global food security.
San Jose, 29 July 2022 (IICA) – Agriculture is a key sector for both climate change mitigation and adaptation, so it is essential that the countries of Africa and the Americas develop their food production’s enormous potential to help prevent global warming.
This was the view expressed by the ministers and specialists from the two continents attending the “Africa-Americas Summit on Agrifood Systems,” which is being held in Costa Rica.
Ministers, deputy ministers and senior officials responsible for agriculture, environment and science and technology from some 40 countries are taking part in the activity, which aims to lay the groundwork for greater collaboration between the two continents in the face of the threats to global food security.
Hipólito Mejía, former President of the Dominican Republic and IICA Goodwill Ambassador, and Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla, Senior Visiting Researcher of the IICA/IFPRI Program opened the discussion, which was entitled “Advancing the transformation of food systems in the wake of the 2021 United Nations Summit”.
Others taking part were Clarkie Lobin Bazwell Lowe, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development of Malawi; Zulfikar Mustapha, Minister of Agriculture of Guyana and Chair of CARICOM’s Special Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security; Fernando Mattos Costa, Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay; and Amadou Balde, Senior Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture of Senegal.
“Today agriculture is grappling with unfavorable conditions, due to a pandemic that has not yet run its course, made worse by the conflict in Europe. We must think in terms of the risks and opportunities before us. Meeting the challenges means increasing production and productivity per unit area, and ensuring environmental sustainability,” Mejía remarked.
Mejía served as his country’s Minister of Agriculture prior to his election as President of the Dominican Republic. He pointed out that rural areas do not only produce food, but also build the identity and sense of belonging of communities.
“In order to convert challenges into opportunities,” he stressed, “the conditions in each country must be geared to global needs, using local resources to generate exports, harnessing communication technologies to take advantage of the demand for what we can produce, and promoting community participation.”
“Africa and the Americas must set an example to the world of unity and integration at this time of crisis,” he urged.
The need for a plan
Díaz Bonilla stressed the importance of establishing the goals that need to be achieved through the transformation of agri-food systems, including quantitative objectives, in order to then design policy instruments and determine costs and the financing required.
“There are special groups that must be taken into account in the transformation process, such as small farmers, vulnerable groups, women, and youth. Agriculture will have to coordinate closely with health, the environment and agribusiness, work with the private sector, and collaborate effectively with development agencies,” remarked Díaz Bonilla, a professional with more than 40 years’ experience who has worked in a number of countries as an economist and diplomat specializing in development and trade issues.
Díaz Bonilla then pointed out that both Africa and the Americas were heavily dependent on the cycle of raw materials or commodities. “When commodity prices rose, we had growth, and when they fell, we stopped growing,” he acknowledged.
He added that countries were engaged in two different processes as far as agri-food systems were concerned: the national roadmaps that emerged from the 2021 UN Summit and the climate change negotiations. “The agri-food sector is essential for adaptation and resilience, so the two issues cannot be separated,” he remarked.
Minister Mattos said that Latin America and Africa’s enormous potential to increase production was being undermined by higher prices of raw materials, a development that had to be addressed with more research and more science, always with sustainability as a priority.
“More biotechnology and more international cooperation are the way forward. An institution like IICA has a very important role to play, as can be seen from this drawing closer together of two continents that are called upon to be major global food suppliers,” the Uruguayan minister added.
Minister Mustapha of Guyana warned that financing must be available to consolidate the transformation of agri-food systems. “The region still faces enormous challenges where agri-food issues are concerned. They include weak infrastructure, poor financing mechanisms and the existence of various barriers to intra-regional trade,” he suggested.
Malawi’s Minister of Agriculture highlighted the need to involve youth in food production to ensure a transformation of agri-food systems that includes greater sustainability.
“Young people,” he acknowledged, “think we have cast them aside. We have to involve them and, as parents, we must include them, otherwise they will opt for sectors other than agriculture. We must target high-school and university students and get them involved in agriculture.”
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