IICA continues to promote innovation in agriculture

San Jose, Costa Rica, July (IICA). In compliance with a mandate from the Ministers of Agriculture of the hemisphere, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is doubling its efforts in support of innovation in agriculture.

The Director General of the Institute, Victor M. Villalobos, made this statement in his address to delegates from eight countries who took part on July 12 in the annual meeting of the Special Advisory Commission on Management Issues (SACMI). The countries represented were Antigua and Barbuda (represented by its Minister of Agriculture, Hilson Baptiste), Argentina, Canada, United States, Nicaragua, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil.

Villalobos reviewed the priorities of the Institute and the actions it has taken over the last two years. “We have placed strong emphasis on innovation, which was the central theme of the Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas, held in October 2011 in Costa Rica,” he said.

He called attention to, for example, the creation of the Network for the Management of Innovation in the Agrifood Sector (INNOVAGRO), which comprises 50 organizations from almost half of IICA’s member countries, and is intended to facilitate joint efforts and the exchange of new findings.

“IICA’s actions in support of national agricultural research institutes enable them to work and grow together,” Villalobos added.

With support from the Institute, the International Meeting of the Forum for the Americas on Agricultural Research and Technology Development (FORAGRO) will be held in Lima, Peru, next August. This meeting will serve as a preparatory meeting for the global conference on the topic to be held this year in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which is expected to yield guidelines for agricultural research worldwide.

In addition, the Director General referred to advances in areas such as promotion of food security, strengthening of agricultural health, combating poverty and supporting rural development.

Referring to specific tasks undertaken, Villalobos summarized IICA’s participation in important international meetings to ensure the inclusion of the topic of agriculture in multilateral discussions on the challenges facing the world today, such as food security or climate change, and to encourage greater investment in agriculture in the countries of the region.

The Institute was represented at the Sixth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Americas (Cartagena, Colombia, April 2012), where the countries pledged to invest more in their national agricultural research institutions.

At the most recent General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in June 2012, IICA prepared the only technical document on the key topic of the meeting: food security and sovereignty.

As part of an interagency group, technical documents on food and agriculture were prepared that served as the basis for the meeting of the G20, attended by leaders of the 20 largest economies of the world (Los Cabos, Mexico, June 2012).

At the new Earth Summit, entitled Rio+20, the Institute warned that there can be no sustainable development and climate change cannot be overcome if the crucial role that agriculture plays is not taken into account. (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2012).

The countries, said Villalobos “increasingly request our participation and technical support, which we take as an acknowledgement of our contribution, but we are concerned because our resources are limited.”

New Deputy Director General

The Director General introduced the new Deputy Director General to the participants in the SACMI meeting. He is Lloyd Day, from the United States.

Mr. Day has had a distinguished career in both the private and public sectors in his country. He studied Modern History at the University of Glasgow, Scotland and earned a degree in Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Stanford, in California.

He has held several posts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the most recent being Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service, and before that, as Special Assistant to the Administrator of the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS).

After stating how pleased he was to be joining the IICA team, Mr. Day stated that the Institute played a very important role in bringing the countries of the Americas together to address the most important issues related to development.

For more information, contact: 
evangelina.beltran@iica.int