Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Agriculture

President of Costa Rica declares the creation of the Plaza of Agriculture of the Americas to be a matter of public interest

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

The plaza, which IICA is building at its Headquarters in San José, will highlight the value of agriculture in the hemisphere and its importance to the society.

The 455 square meter plaza will feature park and garden spaces and will be able to accommodate more than 230 people, in a surrounding of green spaces.

San José, 30 August 2019 (IICA). The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, declared the creation of the Plaza of Agriculture of the Americas to be a matter of public interest. This public space, which will be constructed at the Headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, will be open to everyone and will demonstrate the value of agriculture and the rural environment.

The declaration was signed by President Alvarado, by Manuel Ventura, the Minister of Foreign and Religious Affairs and by Renato Alvarado, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock.

Director General, Manuel Otero, spearheaded the creation of this plaza, which will be built at the front of IICA’s Headquarters, in Vázquez de Coronado (San José), in keeping with the concept of an IICA with open doors.

The aim is to integrate this international organization into the community and to make the plaza an educational and recreational site.

Otero maintained that the plaza “will be the symbol of an open IICA that is connected to the community. We want to recognize the value of rural peasant labor and our facility should reflect this. In every way, our headquarters should embody the concept of the Home of Agriculture in the Americas”.

“We want people everywhere to be talking about the importance of agriculture and of the IICA that we are creating: a more sustainable and efficient organization; a provider of technical cooperation of excellence; and an institution promoting greater private sector involvement in areas of benefit to agriculture and rural development”, he added.

A tribute to agriculture

The 455 square meter plaza will feature park and garden spaces and will be able to accommodate more than 230 people, in a surrounding of green spaces.

Yendri Moralas, architect at Greenplan, the firm that is overseeing the construction of the plaza, explained that, “The park will feature plots representing the varied topography of the Americas and will include designs of rectangular, flat and orderly farms, curved and terraced areas. The vegetation will also be representative of the countries”.

There will be a 75 linear meter water trail running along the promenade, and it will be representative of a watershed.

The project is part of IICA’s modernization master plan, which includes the creation of a dynamic and interactive exhibit on tomorrow’s agriculture, the construction of a Rural Costa Rican House (that will be reminiscent of the rural traditions in our hemisphere), the forest of the Americas and the installation of an agricultural innovation laboratory. The latter is already in operation and was developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT).

Also planned is a mural on agriculture and urban art.

According to the Director General of IICA, construction of the Plaza of Agriculture of the Americas will begin this year and will be completed in 2020.

More information:

Institutional Communication Division

comunicacion.institucional@iica.int

 

Share

Related news​

San José, Costa Rica

September 10, 2025

Erick Geovany Ac Tot, a cocoa entrepreneur who promotes high-quality cocoa and the preservation of ancestral trees in Guatemala, is named an IICA Leader of Rurality 

Erick Geovany Ac Tot—a prominent Guatemalan cocoa entrepreneur who has been assisting small farmer organizations, promoting high-quality cocoa production and preserving heirloom trees for years, in addition to being a cocoa taster—has been named a Leader of Rurality of the Americas by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). 

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Durante el llamado Diálogo Regional sobre Innovaciones para la Adaptación Climática de pequeños productores del Corredor Seco Centroamericano, los participantes discutieron temas clave como ganadería resiliente, agroforestería, innovación productiva y medidas de adaptación frente a sequías, inundaciones y otros eventos climáticos.

San Salvador

September 9, 2025

In El Salvador, Leaders of Rurality of the Americas shared experiences and engaged in dialogue with youth and specialists on ways to strengthen productivity in the Central American Dry Corridor

The leaders who participated in the meeting were Macarena Valdés and Marco Aceituno from Chile; Elvia Monzón, Gustavo Rivas and Erick Ac from Guatemala; Katy Moncada and Eodora Méndez from Honduras; and Odette Varela and Salomón Zelada from El Salvador.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Santa Fé, Darién, Panamá

September 4, 2025

Coordination between IICA and Panamanian and U.S. government authorities bolsters the fight against New World screwworm in Central America and Mexico

As part of the efforts to curb the spread of the New World screwworm (NWS), a current health threat in Central America and Mexico, the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA) of Panama, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm (COPEG) organized a meeting with livestock farmers in the city of Santa Fé de Darién to strengthen health surveillance and better protect local livestock production.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins