Tag: IICA

Manuel Otero, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), sent a message to the technical staff and specialists of the specialized agency in agricultural and rural development that operates in 35 countries of the Americas and in Spain. He urged them to maintain high standards in their daily efforts to deliver effective and innovative technical cooperation to member countries. Otero argued that the current global emergency triggered by the Coronavirus pandemic, “makes it imperative that we deliver more effective and first-class technical cooperation”, as “the welfare and food security of our people are at stake”. The Director General of the Inter-American agency expressed concern at the slowing down of trade, indicating that this “may endanger people’s ability to fully exercise their right to food, especially in countries with an extremely high agricultural trade deficit”. He was also apprehensive about the immediate future of countries with economies that are excessively dependent on one sector, such as tourism, petroleum or agricultural raw materials, suggesting that diversification would provide a “long-term, structural antidote”.