The Ministers of Agriculture of the Latin American region met this week in the country to discuss food security. The meeting is organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Manuel Otero, director of this forum, said that throughout the week the leaders will talk about crucial issues of a key sector for the global food supply and whose development is a requirement for the fight against food insecurity and mass migration.
The agenda includes the debate on issues such as rural inclusion in the digital era, balances between productivity and sustainability, and the interaction between health, safety and international trade, all of them key to the continental agricultural sector.
In his opening address, President Carlos Alvarado said that in the Latin American region the agricultural sector “is the one that suffers the most”, hence the governments of the region propose public policies for its promotion.
For Costa Rica, hosting this meeting of ministers at IICA is very important. We have formidable challenges in the agricultural sector. The farmers themselves have taught me that once in life will need a lawyer, twice, or three times a doctor, but a farmer, we need them every day, all of us. It is the most important thing we have and there are times that we don’t give it that importance or value, ”
said Alvarado.
The meeting will offer an important space for dialogues and forge alliances between governments and the private sector, since the ministers will participate in forums where they will share debates and points of view with representatives of global companies closely linked to agricultural production, such as Bayer, Corteva and Microsoft.