The Americas highlight importance of their agricultural sector for the world

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The countries of the Americas on Wednesday (1) reinforced their joint position on the importance of their agrifood systems for trade and global food security, and to become part of the solution to the problems facing the world, such as the climate crisis.

“We must continue working to strengthen the leading role of the Americas in several international markets. We are responsible for ensuring food and nutritional security in the world,” said Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Director General Manuel Otero, during the Conference of Agriculture Ministers of the Americas 2021, held online with IICA as the main host in San Jose, Costa Rica.

One out of every 3 tons of agricultural products exported worldwide comes from the Americas, establishing the continent as the world’s largest food exporting region, according to IICA data.

THE UNION OF COUNTRIES

The Ministers who met on Wednesday ratified their joint position on 16 key messages that the region will take to the United Nations Food Systems Summit to be held in New York at the end of this month.

Among the key messages are that the Americas’ agrifood systems are not defective, but can be improved, that agricultural producers are the central link and must have long-term policies, trade must be enhanced, agriculture is part of the solution to the world’s problems, and science is key to the development of agricultural public policies.

The joint position also alerts to the vulnerability to climate crises and natural disasters, particularly in Central America and the Caribbean.

Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development Víctor Villalobos said that the consensus reached by the region “is good news and a call to strengthen multilateral frameworks” at a time of special significance, namely the Covid-19 health emergency, and he urged a paradigm shift.

“We cannot continue to produce the way we have done in the past 60 years, the environmental cost has been too high as well as social exclusion. The challenge is to produce for a growing population, but we must do it in a sustainable way. We cannot allow agriculture to be a secondary player,” he said.

The Ministers agreed that during the pandemic, agriculture was a sector that continued to grow in order to ensure global food security, which is proof of the region’s potential and relevance to the world.

At the meeting, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed sent a video message to the Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas, in which she said that “there is no single solution that fits all food systems challenges, but in all contexts there are opportunities for innovation.”

“Transformative investments in our food systems can spur our post-pandemic recovery and put us back on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in the next 9 years,” she said.

The meeting also approved a resolution to boost joint efforts and international cooperation to prevent the spread to the continent of African swine fever, a disease present in the Dominican Republic that poses a serious threat to the sector.

REELECTION AT IICA AND A CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE

During the conference, the Ministers re-elected Argentine Manuel Otero as IICA’s Director General for a second 4-year term (2022-2026).

“I want a pragmatic IICA, one that understands the reality of countries, that the technical cooperation agenda must serve countries’ agendas. I have a dream that I want to present as a commitment, which is to make IICA a more relevant, less bureaucratic institution that provides the answers the countries need,” Otero said after thanking the countries for their support for his administration.

One of IICA’s most recent projects under Otero’s leadership is the Center for the Interpretation of Tomorrow’s Agriculture (CIMAG), located at the organization’s facilities in Costa Rica.

It is an innovation center that links agriculture and education, created through partnerships with Microsoft, Bayer and Lego through the Learning by Doing organization, with the aim of highlighting the key role of new technologies in the agricultural sector through virtual and interactive experimentation.