Food Security

IICA's Strategy for Technical Cooperation in Food Security

Line 1: Institutional innovations for a new paradigm for technological change for production and food diversification
Objective: To improve the institutional framework for research, extension and technological innovation in order to increase food availability

Line 2: Provide institutions and services to strengthen the capacities of small and medium farmers and farming families to enter into markets
Objective: Contribute to improving the incomes of small and medium-sized farmers and family farmers to secure more efficient access to markets (value chain management)

Line 3: Assessment, monitoring and dissemination of policies and information on the status and prospects for food security
Objective: To monitor and report on the status and prospects for food security in countries of IICA

Documents
Implementation of the IICA´s Strategy for Technical Cooperation in Food Security. PPT Presentation

Report to IABA. Progress in implementing IICA´s Strategy in the Area of Food Security

IICA Press on Food Security

Food Security and Country Led Food Security Plans-Top Priority for IICA/OAS Conference Experts (October, 2009)

IICA urges support of small- and medium-scale farmers (September 24th, 2009)

IICA and OAS to Host Hemispheric Conference on Food Security (August 20th, 2009)

Countries Endorse IICA Strategy In Food Security (July 23rd, 2009)
     Executive Committee meeting, attended by delegations from 22 countries, comes to an end.

Director General proposes adoption of new development model  (June 24th, 2009)
     He stressed the need to make food security a national priority and thanked the Government of Spain for its support of agriculture
     in the Americas.

IICA Emphasizes Importance of Food Security to OAS Permanent Council (March 18, 2009)

More press available at :
--> IICA's Food Security Information Page

IICA Publications on Food Security

Food Security in the Americas: The Need for a New Development Model
"The time has come to re-assess the contribution made by the rural economies of our countries to integral
development. This contribution involves the current and potential production of a sustainable supply of energy and nutritious food to minimize life-style illnesses; the preservation of forests to reduce the impact of climate change; and economic activities in the agricultural sector that can provide employment and help reduce poverty.

To build a sustainable society, therefore, we need a new development model that incorporates the social, economic, technological, environmental and political dimensions of development. The current food crisis clearly shows that humanity must change course and make better use of the planet’s natural and knowledge resources."

Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Fortress at a Time of Crisis and the Engine Driving Future Development
This document is an executive summary of a publication that is the result of a process launched by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in mid- 2008. At that time, IICA invited a number of experts to an international workshop to analyze “the contribution of agriculture and the rural milieu to sustainable development and food security in the new international context,” at a time when the prices of the major commodities rose to historic levels, which posed a threat to food security in most of the countries of, especially the most vulnerable segments of their populations.

IICA Technical Journal:
COMUNIICA Online: Socioeconomic and Sectoral Statistics: Agriculture and Food Security
The material in this special edition of COMUNIICA invites reflection on agriculture, presenting the more recent statistics to which IICA has access and which the Institute considers important to share via country data sheets. These data, organized by the Institutional Modernization Unit of IICA, come from recognized international sources of agricultural information and paint a clear picture of where the agricultural sector stands vis-à-vis the challenge it faces in 2009.