IICA publishes a manual that includes strategies for evaluation, mitigation and transfer of risks associated with agriculture.
San Jose, Costa Rica, May 22, 2013 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has published a manual that will help producers and technicians in public and private organizations to evaluate, mitigate, manage and transfer risks in their agribusiness activities.
“The manual was produced in the context of a hemispheric project to strengthen the institutional framework for the development of agribusiness and organizational capabilities in the Americas, after we identified risk management as one of the main weaknesses affecting producers’ associations in Ecuador, Paraguay and Guatemala. None of these three countries had tools for that purpose”, explained Miguel García, Manager of IICA’s Agribusiness and Commercialization Program.
The Manual para Desarrollar Capacidades Institucionales en la Gestión del Riesgo Agroempresarial includes a typology for the identification, analysis and design of risk management strategies in agribusiness. This guide explains the different risks involved in production (climate change, diseases and pests), marketing (price volatility, sales and distribution), those related to inadequate management of technology as well as the legal, human and financial risks.
According to Marcelo Núñez, a specialist in agribusiness and marketing at IICA, “it is not very effective to try to address all the risks at once. The recommendation is to identify the risks that could cause the most damage and find ways of mitigating, assuming or transferring them.”
Using this typology, the handbook will help farmers identify the main risks faced, together with their intensity and frequency. The tool includes strategies for implementing mitigation actions that will reduce the negative effects of the factors evaluated, strategies for retaining or assuming certain risks that cannot be mitigated (including for economic reasons) and strategies for transferring these, if the appropriate tools and third parties are available.
In order to facilitate the process of risk management, the manual includes a form for the identification of risks, as well as cases and practical exercises to enable the technical managers of organizations and producers to carry out all the tasks mentioned.
“This guide forms part of the international public goods that IICA creates and makes available to the international community. Through it, we hope to generate installed capacity among technicians on this topic and facilitate risk management plans in producers’ associations,” concluded Núñez.
For more information, contact:
marcelo.nunez@iica.int
