The ministers of Agriculture of the Americas agreed, on closing the IICA Executive Committee meeting, that overcoming the food and climate crisis will hinge on effective collective action

San Jose, 21 July 2023 (IICA) – Agriculture ministers and senior officials of 25 countries in the Americas, attending a two-day meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), urged the hemispheric organization to intensify ongoing efforts to mobilize collective action.

The ministers all highlighted IICA’s actions to build bridges between countries and regions and between these areas and the private sector, academia and civil society organizations. They also felt that in this time of increased food insecurity and a growing climate crisis, it is essential that the Institute expand its efforts to disseminate best practices and experiences that will facilitate the creation of a knowledge intensive agriculture sector that also serves a social purpose.

Fifteen ministers of Agriculture and other senior officials of the agriculture sector of the Americas, representing 25 countries, participated in the meeting.

Among them were Everly Greene from Antigua and Barbuda; José Abelardo Mai, from Belize; Victor Carvajal, from Costa Rica; Oscar Guardado Calderón, from El Salvador; Adrian Thomas, from Grenada; Floyd Green, from Jamaica;  Víctor Villalobos, from Mexico; Augusto Valderrama, from Panama; Alfred Prospere, from Saint Lucia; Zulfikar Mustapha, from Guyana;  Charlot Bredy, from Haiti;  Samal Mojah Duggins, from St. Kitts and Nevis;  Limber Cruz, from the Dominican Republic;  Saboto Caesar, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and  Avinash Singh, from Trinidad and Tobago.

Also present were representatives of international organizations and observer countries from other continents.

The issue of the global food security crisis—that is evident from the increased number of people suffering from hunger or with no access to healthy diets—took center stage at the meeting, along with the water deficit, as a manifestation of the climate crisis that has hit a large portion of the hemisphere, severely impacting food production. 

Thus, the ministers and authorities expressed their support for the Hemispheric Partnership for Food Security and Sustainable Development launched by IICA, based on the conviction that the region has a major responsibility today, given its position as the world’s major net food exporter and a region that is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and biodiversity.

The partnership—that is in keeping with IICA’s historic role as a builder of bridges—seeks to position agriculture as a key activity that is becoming a strategic pillar for the sustainable development of countries in the hemisphere.

IICA also presented its Hemispheric Initiative on Water and Agriculture at the meeting, aiming to build capacities and promote strategic public-private partnerships in IICA member countries, to improve the integrated management and efficient use of water for production.

The agricultural and rural development organization of the Americas will meet with technical teams and funding agencies in September to define concrete actions and establish measurable targets, in a bid to create a more green, inclusive, resilient and sustainable sector, even amidst the climate crisis.

On this occasion, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security of Barbados, Indar Weir, was named as Chair of the Executive Committee, succeeding Laura Suazo, the Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock of Honduras, who completed her mandate.

The Executive Committee is one of IICA’s governing bodies. It is comprised of twelve Member States, which are chosen to serve for a two-year term, according to the principles of partial rotation and equitable geographic distribution. However, the participation of the other thirteen member countries was sought for this meeting, given the nature of the agenda under discussion.

At the meeting, IICA also reported on the results of its activities in key areas of the regional agricultural agenda, such as the thrust to drive the bioeconomy and digital agriculture. The Institute made a presentation on the work of the Public Policy Observatory for Agrifood Systems (OPSAa) – a platform launched by the Institute in 2022, as a tool to navigate this era of crisis. Similarly, the Institute gave an account of the activities of the Leadership School for the Transformation of Agrifood Systems of the Americas (ELTSA).

An update was also provided on efforts to strengthen IICA’s strategic partnerships, and there was a more detailed report of its relationships with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).

A General Cooperation Agreement was signed by IICA and the Costa Rica Tourism Institute, with a view to increasing the contribution of agriculture and tourism to the economy of the Central American country, particularly by small and medium-scale enterprises.

Agriculture with a human face

“Agriculture is evolving at an alarming pace and we are trying to defend a knowledge-intensive activity, with a human face, which must tackle this climate crisis”, said the IICA Director General, Manuel Otero, on closing the Executive Committee meeting after two days of discussion”.

“I know that working together is the only way we can move forward. No one can save themselves singlehandedly. Therein lies the importance of the Hemispheric Partnership for Food Security and Sustainable Development”, he reflected, while explaining that IICA believes in technical cooperation that is “non-bureaucratic, digital and delivered in real time”.

In closing, Otero invited the agriculture ministers and authorities of the Americas to come to Costa Rica in October, to attend the ministerial meeting of IICA’s highest governing body—the Inter-American Board of Agriculture—and also to participate in the next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), to be held at the end of the year in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

With the support of member countries and the private sector, last year IICA installed the House of Sustainable Agriculture in the Americas pavilion at COP27 in Egypt, where it defended the role of agriculture in climate change mitigation and adaptation at this, the major environmental negotiation forum in the world.

“We must make it clear—he said—that climate actions to achieve a sustainable agriculture sector must be science-based, so that they safeguard and increase productivity, without compounding the food crisis”.

“We will continue to work on this process, along with countries and other stakeholders in the private sector, civil society and academia, to ensure that the voice of agriculture is clearly heard and that it becomes a leading player in climate negotiations. Never again should we be left out of these negotiations”.

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