IICA to support construction of Costa Rica’s agricultural and rural policy

San Jose, Costa Rica, August 6, 2014 (IICA). The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) of Costa Rica and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) signed two agreements under which they will work together on the construction of the country’s sectorial policy and the design of IICA’s cooperation strategy in Costa Rica for the next four years.

The agreements were signed on August 1 during the regular meeting of the National Agriculture Sector Council (CAN), composed of senior MAG officials and the 11 public institutions whose work focuses on Costa Rica’s agricultural sector, such as the National Production Council (CNP), the Rural Development Institute (INDER), the Executive Secretariat for Agriculture Sector Planning (SEPSA) and the State Plant Health Service (SFE), among others.

Under the agreement signed by Deputy Minister Gina Paniagua Sánchez and the Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos, the Institute’s Office in Costa Rica will work with SEPSA on the construction of the Area-based Agricultural and Rural Sector Policy for 2015-2018. The work is due to be completed in October 2014.

“The five focal areas on which we will concentrate in order to enhance the dignity of the country’s small- and medium-scale producers are food and nutritional security and sovereignty, area-based rural development, the promotion of opportunities for young people, climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in agriculture and the strengthening of the agro-export sector,” the Deputy Minister announced.

“IICA has the technical capacity to support the MAG in this process; our cooperation model is designed to bring about more competitive, inclusive and sustainable agriculture that is capable of feeding the population and reducing poverty and hunger in rural territories,” the Director General of IICA explained.

The agreement to prepare, integrate and coordinate the IICA strategy in Costa Rica for the period 2014-2018 was signed by the Executive Director of SEPSA, Lilliana Montero, and the Institute’s Representative in Costa Rica, Miguel Ángel Arvelo. The deadline for completing the strategy is September.

Deputy Minister Paniagua gave an overview of Costa Rica’s agricultural priorities, on which the development of the strategy will be based. They are related to agribusiness, market intelligence, marketing, water resources, technological innovation and risk management, as well as the formulation of the sectoral policy.

The work will also focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation, the coordination of the institutional framework at the territorial (area) level, food quality and safety, opportunities for rural youth, information technologies and biomass.

According to Arvelo, these areas of cooperation match IICA’s supply of technical expertise and will be linked to the flagship projects under which IICA’s actions will be concentrated for the next four years: competitiveness and sustainability of agricultural chains, inclusion in agriculture and rural territories, resilience and comprehensive risk management, and productivity and sustainability of family agriculture.

The CAN meeting took place at IICA’s Headquarters in San Jose. This month, representatives of the institutions that are members of the CAN and the Institute’s Office in Costa Rica will meet again to establish the results that the strategy will aim to produce.

Interviews (Spanish only):

Interview: Miguel Ángel Arevalo, IICA Representative in Costa Rica

For further information: 
miguel.arvelo@iica.int