Peru’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation and IICA strengthen cooperation agenda

Lima, 24 March 2021 (IICA). Peru’s minister of Agricultural Development and Irrigation, Federico Tenorio, and Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, met virtually to discuss family farming, agricultural extension and financing, food security and other mechanisms crucial for agricultural and rural development. The meeting sought ways to strengthen the technical cooperation activities offered by the hemisphere’s specialized agricultural agency in the Andean nation’s agriculture and rural sectors.

During the discussion, the head of the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI) voiced the need for IICA support in preparing a proposal geared toward strengthening and modernizing the management practices of the Peruvian state financial body, Agrobanco. The agency was founded in 2001 to support the development of various aspects of the nation’s agriculture sector, especially its agricultural, livestock, forestry, aquaculture and agro-industrial activities. Areas of focus also include processing, marketing and export of natural products and their by-products.

“We are trying to relaunch the financial agency and change its strategic focus toward small family farms during these challenging times of the pandemic and the consequent need for economic and social recovery. With IICA’s support, we can make some changes,” Minister Tenorio said.

Manuel Otero drew attention to the close relationship between financing and agricultural extension services as effective means to promote the development of family farming. He also pointed the minister toward the services offered by the alliance between IICA and Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD). PAD was co-founded by 2019 Nobel Laureate in Economics Michael Kremer, who has developed digital extension models in African countries and India, a practice now being implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The PAD-IICA alliance will promote a technical assistance and digital rural extension program using cellphone technology. The first phase will provide assistance to thousands of small producers in Brazil’s Northeast region who earn a living growing corn and beans and raising sheep and goats.

“We are implementing this initiative in Brazil’s Northeast region to provide remote assistance to thousands of small producers in coordination with other agrarian and rural public policy instruments. In the case of Peru, this type of initiative could be paired with rural financing and the significant levels of investment the country is making in the area of irrigation,” Otero said.

“We’re very interested in this initiative. We want to know the project’s scope, the advances that have been made and identify steps needed to introduce it in Peru,” Tenorio replied.

The minister said he was pleased that IICA had confirmed its support for holding the upcoming third Hemispheric Meeting of Ministers and Secretaries of Agriculture in the Americas under the chairmanship of Peru as host. The meeting, jointly coordinated by FAO and IICA, will take place on 15 April 2021.

Agriculture authorities in the Americas will use the event to create and push through initiatives that address current challenges in agriculture, food security and rural wellbeing.

During the virtual meeting with the minister, Otero highlighted that the XXI Regular Meeting of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA) will take place on 1 and 2 September 2021. It is the highest governing body of IICA and comprises the organization’s 34 Member States. The September meeting is particularly relevant since it will take place “on the eve of the UN Food Systems Summit. We will use the context of the Summit to promote a united position of the Americas as it relates to the importance of agriculture, without which it is impossible to think of food and the sustainable advancement of our rural territories”.

The virtual meeting closed by emphasizing the importance of the regional cooperation agenda being prepared as a follow up to the Andean Agricultural Forum and IICA’s role as facilitator, given its experience providing technical secretariat support in spaces such as the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) and the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC).

Noemí Marmanillo, MIDAGRI’s Director of International Cooperation also participated in the meeting, in addition to IICA’s Chief of Staff, Miguel Ángel Arvelo; Marco Zapata, Special Affairs Coordinator for the Andean region; Héctor Cortés, IICA Representative in Peru; and Luis Morán, IICA Technical Coordinator and Agribusiness Specialist in Peru. 

More information:
Luis Morán, Technical Coordinator and Agribusiness Specialist, IICA Representation in Peru.
luis.moran@iica.int