Latin America to have joint agenda for climate change adaptation in agriculture

*David Williams, Manager of IICA’s Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Climate Change Program, pointed out that a shared agenda was needed to solve problems related to environmental care.*

Mexico, September 4, 2014 (IICA). The Latin American countries are to create a joint agenda for sharing actions and initiatives designed to facilitate adaptation to climate change in agriculture as part of the EUROCLIMA program being carried out by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the European Union’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

At a workshop in Mexico City involving agricultural specialists from the Latin American countries, IICA and the EU, the countries reached agreement on the issues about which knowledge will be shared. They include comprehensive risk management and actions to combat drought and desertification caused by the effects of climate change.

The three-day meeting was used to present the potential and scope of EUROCLIMA, which aims to strengthen technical cooperation for agriculture in Latin America. Also disseminated was information about the projects that the IICA Offices and EUROCLIMA are already supporting in the countries that address issues related to adaptation, such as drought, good agricultural practices and climate modeling.

José Mario Pampini, director for climate change of Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), said the workshop had made it possible to identify the countries’ strengths and weaknesses for coping with the impact of climate change, and to confirm the importance of strengthening South-South cooperation.

“The impact of climate change on agriculture must be addressed; a very good way of doing so is through international cooperation,” Pampini observed.

The Government of Mexico believed the cooperation needed to be robust to guarantee the results of the joint efforts, he added.

David Williams, Manager of IICA’s Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Climate Change Program, pointed out that a shared agenda was needed to solve problems related to environmental care, strengthen the countries’ actions and enhance climate change adaptation in agriculture.

“One of the biggest challenges in producing food is to do so in an efficient and environmentally responsible way, especially when agriculture is the biggest user of water,” Williams remarked.

“Increasing production, promoting the proper use of natural resources and combating climate change pose big challenges for public policymakers,” he noted.

IICA and the JRC are carrying out the “Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in Latin America” component of the EUROCLIMA program, implemented by the European Union’s Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation (EuropeAid).

For further information:
david.williams@iica.int
ronny.cascante@iica.int