With "Realizing the Inter-American Dream of 1942” as its theme, IICA celebrated its 65th anniversary during a special session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS). On 3 October, the ambassadors to the OAS commended the work of this agency of the Inter-American System and recognized the strategic importance of agriculture and rural life in the Americas and their crucial contribution to social and political stability, democracy and the alleviation of poverty. Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, Rodolfo Gil, chaired the meeting and extolled IICA’s role, as did a number of other delegates. The Director General of IICA, Chelston Brathwaite, stated that it is necessary to promote a “new agriculture” throughout the hemisphere in order to reduce poverty and foster the development of rural communities. The Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Ambassador Albert Ramdin, referred to IICA as a “vehicle for expanding the productive capacity of the agricultural sector and improving rural life.”

At a meeting of the Inter-American Ethanol Commission (IEC) held recently in Miami, Director General Chelston Brathwaite presented a study on the state of and outlook for ethanol production in the Americas. The IEC is a private-sector body co-chaired by Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank; Jeb Bush, former Governor of the State of Florida; and Roberto Rodrigues, President of the Agribusiness Board of the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The document, entitled “Agroenergy and Biofuels Atlas of the Americas 1. Ethanol,” was prepared by IICA in response to a request from the IEC.

The most important annual strategic planning event of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), known as Representatives’ Week 2007, will begin on October 25 and run through November 1. “Leadership and Institutional Modernization” is the theme of the Week, which will bring together IICA’s Representatives in its 34 Member States, its Regional Specialists and the senior management personnel of Headquarters. The highlight of the event will be a presentation entitled “Leadership in the 21st Century: challenges and opportunities” by Stephen Covey, a world-renowned expert in the field of effectiveness and leadership. Participants in the Week will also be involved in a three-day training course on leadership and institutional modernization, offered by the INCAE business school. During the closing ceremony, Director General Chelston Brathwaite will bestow the 2007 Awards for Excellence on IICA personnel (teams and individuals) in recognition of their contributions to agriculture and rural life in the hemisphere.

  Challenges facing agriculture in the Caribbean addressed in Jamaica

Jamaica was the venue for the Seventh Caribbean Week of Agriculture, held from October 7-13. The event, whose theme was “Agriculture - Harvesting Wealth through Tourism,” brought together the ministers of agriculture from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The Alliance for the Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu in the Wider Caribbean, which is known as “the Alliance” and receives support from IICA, the CARICOM Secretariat and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was responsible for organizing the event. Tourism was selected as the focal point of the week because of the important role it plays in the economies of the Caribbean nations and because of the need to integrate tourism and agriculture. Participants included, among others, representatives of governments, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations. The IICA delegation was headed by the Director General, who was accompanied by the Director of Operations for the Caribbean, Trevor Murray, and the IICA Representative in Jamaica, Cynthia Currie.

The Institute is participating actively in the search for solutions to the current worldwide energy crisis. In recent weeks, for example, it has promoted two important meetings on the topic of biofuels; one in El Salvador and the other in Colombia. The event held on September 26-28 in El Salvador, entitled “Second Latin American and Caribbean Biofuels Seminar,” was convened by the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) in close collaboration with IICA. In Colombia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with support from the IICA Office in that country, recently held a seminar on that country’s great potential for biofuel production. The event, held in Cartagena de Indias on September 7-8, was attended by more than 1300 people from the public and private sectors. Also in attendance were the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Andres Felipe Arias, as well as other members of the Cabinet. The private sector was represented by the Farmers Association of Colombia (SAC), the National Biofuels Federation (FEDEBIOCOMBUSTIBLES), the National Federation of Oil Palm Growers (FEDEPALMA), the Association of Sugarcane Growers of Colombia (ASOCAÑA), the Sugarcane Research Center of Colombia (CENICAÑA), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the National Agricultural Commodities Exchange (BNA), among others. During the event, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia signed a technical cooperation agreement with the Ministries of Agriculture of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico and Panama, in which it pledged to provide bilateral cooperation to those countries in the areas of technology and agribusiness.

Within the framework of the Andean Countries Cocoa Export Support Opportunities (ACCESO) program, IICA recently made it possible for 30 growers to visit Ecuador. The objective of the visit, which received financial support from the European Union project of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism of Peru, was to exchange experiences in the production and marketing of cacao. In the same vein, the Third Andean Region Workshop and the Fifth National Cacao Congress, held in the city of Tarapoto in northeastern Peru, were attended by 280 cacao specialists and growers.

The Prime Minister of Haiti, Jacques Edouard Alexis, and Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Francois Severin, recently met with incoming and outgoing Directors of Regional Operations Trevor Murray and Arlington Chesney, respectively. The purpose of the meeting was to forge closer ties between the Institute and the Haitian government. The Directors took advantage of the opportunity to meet with strategic partners such as the OAS, USAID and the Embassy of Argentina in Haiti. A visit to IICA Headquarters by Minister Severin is being planned for the near future.

The proposed Central American Agricultural Policy will be submitted to the consideration of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC), which comprises the ministers of agriculture of the region, in November. Guatemala was the site, on September 27-28, of the Eighth Meeting of the Technical Group of the Ministries of Agriculture, which is responsible for formulating the new regional policy. IICA has been involved in formulating the Regional Agroenvironmental Strategy, which is a crucial element of the overall policy and has been endorsed by the Secretariats of the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America (COMISCA) and the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD). The Institute is working with the technical team on the “green negotiations” component of the strategy, along with the Regional Technical Assistance Unit (RUTA), the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and FAO.

The Institute recently participated in a meeting with the Executive Council of the project “Climate Database for Central America.” This project, being implemented by the Regional Water Resources Committee of Central America (CRRH/SICA), is of great importance because of the role it will play in the development of the agricultural insurance market and due in the implementation of the future Central American Agricultural Policy. The expected result of the project is a database containing relevant, reliable and up-to-date information on climate in the region, in an effort to improve climatic risk management, reduce economic impacts and make the agricultural sectors of Central America more competitive.

IICA participated in a recent meeting of the Steering Committee of PROCIANDINO held in La Paz, Bolivia, attended by representatives of the national research institutes of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. During the meeting, IICA technology and innovation specialist Victor Hugo Cardoso was appointed Executive Secretary of PROCINANDINO. The participants underscored the need to continue implementation of the program, especially in five strategic areas: a) institutional strengthening of research for technological innovation; b) climate change; c) development and safe use of agrobiotechnologies; d) biofuels and agriculture; and e) food security and innovations for small scale agriculture.

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