After five days, the most important event on agriculture and rural life in the Americas concluded successfully on July 27 in Antigua, Guatemala. Delegates from the governments of the 34 nations in attendance reaffirmed their commitment to the AGRO 2003-2015 Plan by adopting the Hemispheric Ministerial Agreement – Guatemala 2007. This agreement, one of the most important accomplishments of the week, will be taken into consideration by the Heads of State and Government at the Fifth Summit of the America, to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009. The participants also discussed key issues topics such as poverty alleviation, climate change, agricultural biotechnology and bio-fuels. The Director General of IICA, Chelston Brathwaite, declared the Week a success and, during the closing session, urged all the agencies of the Inter-American System and the United Nations System and national and regional organizations “to work together to develop a coordinated agenda, which is the only way we will be able to bring the benefits of democracy to the rural and urban poor.” The week was co-organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) and IICA.

The Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), at its Fourteenth Regular Meeting, adopted important decisions related to the actions and the future of the Institute. These include earmarking additional resources for the implementation of the cooperation agendas agreed upon with the Member States. The Board also endorsed the assessment of technical expertise currently under way at the Institute. Another proposal approved was the establishment of strategic partnerships with organizations such as FAO and IDB, with a view to increasing and improving the services of the Institute provides and making maximum use of technical and financial resources. The IABA also endorsed the efforts of the General Directorate to become more involved in executing IDB projects in the rural sector.

The IABA meeting provided the backdrop for the presentation of the Inter-American Awards in the Rural Sector, as recognition from the Member States, to individuals and institutions that have made exceptional contributions to the improvement of agriculture and rural life in the Americas. This year, the most prestigious award, the Inter-American Agricultural Medal, was bestowed upon Jorge Leon Arguedas, a renowned scientist from Costa Rica, and Egbert Miller, an agricultural leader from Jamaica. During the closing session of its meeting, the IABA also acknowledged former IICA staff members from Guatemala who worked in other countries of the hemisphere. Posthumous tribute was also paid to former Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador, Pedro Pablo Rizzo Pastor, who passed away while still holding the post of Chair of the IABA.

The ministerial process “Agriculture and Rural Life” reached a new high point when two fora of key stakeholders in agriculture took place. The first involved agricultural entrepreneurs and the other, civil society organizations. It was the first time that stakeholders not belonging to the public sector had taken part in the efforts to chart the future course of agriculture and seek solutions to the challenges it faces. The participants in the nongovernmental forums asked that their involvement be made a permanent feature of the Week of Agriculture, to allow them to play a proactive role in the construction of a new institutional framework designed, among other things, to provide a structure for establishing State policies for agriculture capable of promoting competitiveness and equity, and not affected by the ups and downs of national politics. The conclusions reached in the fora were considered in wording the Hemispheric Ministerial Agreement – Guatemala 2007.

Senior officials of international organizations participated in the Week of Agriculture, including the Secretary General of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza; the Regional Director of FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jose Graziano Da Silva; the Director General of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Pedro Ferreira; and, the Director of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Keith A. E. Archibald. Representatives of the World Bank, ECLAC, PAHO and CARICOM also attended. In 2009, a similar hemispheric meeting will take place in Jamaica, whose Government offered to host the Fifth Ministerial and the Fifteenth Regular Meeting of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture.

As part of the Week of Agriculture and Rural Life in the Americas, the Regional Council for Agricultural Cooperation (CORECA) met in special session and decided to denounce the current technical cooperation agreement between IICA and the ministries of agriculture for the operation of CORECA with a new agreement between IICA and the CAC. Approval was also given for the preparation of specific agreements allowing the Secretariats of Agriculture of Mexico and the Dominican Republic to join the CAC as an observer and as an associate, respectively.

In response to a request for technical cooperation made by the Minister of Production of Costa Rica, Marco Vargas, IICA’s Directorate of Agricultural Health and Food Safety helped formulate a project aimed at strengthening the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), focusing on equivalence in sanitary measures. This same Directorate also participated in a seminar organized by the Department of Defense of the United States to discuss the level of preparedness and plans of action of the countries in the eventuality of an outbreak of Avian Influenza. IICA made a presentation on the topic and its ideas for containing an outbreak of the disease, as part of its strategy aimed at helping the countries to prevent the entry and spread of the disease.

A working group comprising representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of Guatemala and the Ministry of Agricultural Development of Panama are busy formulating a proposal on funding and investment, for inclusion in the Central American Agricultural Policy. These government officials and representatives of the private sector and civil society met in Panama City on July 5-6 with support from the Secretariat of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) and the Regional Technical Assistance Unit (RUTA). On August 9-10, a workshop was held in Costa Rica to discuss the chapters on competitiveness and agribusiness in the policy. Participants included representatives of the Ministry of Production of Costa Rica (MIPRO), IICA, the International Regional Organization for Plant and Animal Health (OIRSA), the private sector and civil society. The workshop made progress in identifying background information, beneficiaries, objectives, lines of action and measures and instruments to be developed under the regional policy in this area.

In late July, the project “Strategic Guidelines on the Role of Technology and Agrifood Health and Quality in Making Agriculture more Competitive in Argentina” was announced publicly. The project is being developed jointly by the Agricultural Affairs Committee of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), FAO and the IICA/Argentina. At the announcement ceremony, the Institute presented a summary of its contribution in the area of agroenergy.

In Uruguay, IICA launched the “Uruguay Agroalimentario al Mundo” distance education platform. This tool is the outcome of a partnership between public and private institutions committed to agrifood development, and offers a number of distance training courses on agriculture lasting approximately 80 hours. On August 6, an international distance course on animal well-being, the handling of cattle and their connection with meat quality, got under way. The course is coordinated by the National Meat Institute of Uruguay (INAC) and will end on September 28.

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