Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Agriculture

Visit by the Director General of IICA to the United States yields positive results

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

The overseas visit is Otero’s first since he took office on 15 January as the head of IICA.

Stock photo.

Washington, 28 February 2018 (IICA). The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, concluded his visit to the United States today, achieving very positive results, as evidenced by the receptivity of the public and private sectors to the objectives established by the new administration of IICA, an organization that promotes agricultural development in the Americas.

Lloyd Day, Deputy Director General of IICA; Jorge Werthein, special advisor; and Miguel García Winder, IICA Representative in the United States, accompanied Otero on his visit, taking part in four days of intense meetings in Washington. Discussions were held with high-level officers of the Departments of State and Agriculture; Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS); and high-level authorities of multilateral organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector branch of the World Bank.

 “IICA’s proposals were very well received, as was the manner in which the Institution is dealing with the challenge of implementing broad-scope innovations, to deliver technical cooperation of excellence,” stated Otero.

“The Departments of State and Agriculture, as well as multilateral credit organizations, expressed a great deal of interest in strengthening linkages and establishing joint cooperation programs with IICA,” he added.

Otero also met with Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), with whom he agreed on joint work initiatives, as well as with Fernando Oris de Roa, Ambassador of the Republic of Argentina to the United States, and Paula Bertol, Ambassador of Argentina to the OAS. Otero also engaged in dialogue with high-level executives of different companies and representatives of non-governmental organizations, who expressed a great deal of interest in working to achieve more resilient agriculture, as well as in opportunities to collaborate in this new phase of IICA’s history.

 

More information:

José Alfredo Alpízar, Press and Outreach Coordinator at IICA

jose.alpizar@iica.int

 

Related articles

Share

Related news​

San Jose, Costa Rica

August 14, 2025

IICA seminar highlights the urgent need for greater international financing to intensify agricultural transformation and to address its demands

The virtual seminar, held over a three-day period, pinpointed financing as a key contributor to agrifood system transformation.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Pacho, Colombia

August 14, 2025

Fabio Ramírez, a producer and teacher with thousands of followers on social media who learn about the Colombian countryside, is recognized by IICA as a Leader of Rurality of the Americas

Fabio Andrés Ramírez is a proud son of the Pacho area, “a town of oranges,” in the department of Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. A few years ago, he became a prominent creator of digital content and now has over 67,000 followers on Facebook, another 33,000 on TikTok, and about 53,000 on YouTube. He offers them interesting (and sometimes humorous) videos that show the everyday life of farmers, images of cattle fairs, photos of the land and the region’s lush landscapes, interviews with small-scale coffee growers or with fellow Colombians of all ages who smile at the camera on his mobile phone.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

San José, Costa Rica

August 12, 2025

Students from the Colegio Científico de Alajuela win the Minecraft Education Challenge for Agriculture organized by IICA in Costa Rica

In the third edition of this competition, participants were presented with a virtual world in Minecraft consisting of a densely populated city with no spaces where crops could be grown, and tasked with generating innovative and efficient solutions for sustainable food production.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins