San José, 17 June 2025 (IICA). The Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana has officially announced that it is nominating agricultural scientist Muhammad Ibrahim, former Director General of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), as a candidate for the position of Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
The official announcement was made after the country’s President, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, and Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, met with Ibrahim in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown. The Guyanese Government simultaneously sent the official nomination letter to IICA, signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Hilton Todd.
In an official statement, President Ali said Guyana “has entered a phase of accelerated growth and is also the new agricultural frontier of the Americas. This candidacy is from Guyana, but is also Caribbean and South American, because our country belongs to both regions. Moreover, it is an invitation to work together for the agricultural development of Guyana, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Americas in general.”
He added that Guyana “will seek the support of the continent’s agricultural powerhouses, from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile to the United States, Canada, and Mexico, to support and take a major, decisive step on the path to the development we seek and are capable of achieving.”
Candidate Muhammad Ibrahim explained that “I am an agricultural engineer with extensive experience in international management who has dedicated 35 years to building networks to increase the productivity and resilience of the agriculture sector in the Americas, establishing partnerships, mobilizing financial resources, working with decision-makers, and establishing key contacts to ensure the success of these objectives in the Americas and its island nations.”
An agricultural engineer from the University of Guyana, Ibrahim holds a master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources with an emphasis on Animal Nutrition from the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica, where he later served as Director General, and a doctorate in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences with a specialization in Livestock and Animal Nutrition from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
He was also an IICA official, holding various positions in Belize and Costa Rica.
A new Director General of IICA will be elected by the ministers of agriculture of 34 countries in the Americas in November, when the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA) meets.
Guyana’s President, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, and the country’s candidate for the position of Director General of IICA, Muhammad Ibrahim.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
