EFE.- The agri-food systems of America are in a deep transition towards more sustainable models Despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero.
“The vision that some sectors put forward and that we do not share is that of failed systems where one would practically have to start from scratch. What we perceive from the Americas, on the other hand, is that there is a profound process of transition in the agri-food systems in the hemisphere, in the search for environmental, social and economic sustainability”Said Otero.
IICA explained in a statement that Otero’s statements were made in the framework of a virtual forum of experts in which a report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on the world food policy from the perspective of Latin America and the Caribbean.
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The report addresses the impact of the pandemic on the region’s agri-food systems and concludes that it has further exposed weaknesses and inequalities and that some systems have been more resilient than others, depending on their structure and governance.
Otero assured that the decline in the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean caused by the pandemic is equivalent to a lost decade and has had a full impact on all indicators of poverty, unemployment Y food safety.
“In this context of deep crisis and recession, agriculture served as a cushion and an engine for growth. Compared to 2019, Agri-food exports from Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 2.7% in 2020, while total exports fell more than 9%, and a supply of food was generated with the capacity to feed the 1,000 million inhabitants of the Americas ”, he pointed out.
Otero argued that in the last 30 years the agri-food systems of the region have managed to considerably increase the levels of agriculture productivity and they have managed to make this activity serve as a motor for the economic growth, the employment generation and of foreign exchange.
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In this Thursday’s forum, the head of IFPRI’s Latin America and Caribbean Program, Eugenio Díaz Bonilla, urged countries to work together on the transformation of the agri-food sectors and he warned that the results of this transformation will have global implications due to the importance of the region as a global supplier of food and environmental services.
The Director General of IICA highlighted the importance of the voice of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean being heard at the Food Systems Summit 2021 convened by the UN for next September, and for which the institute is working on coordinating joint positions of the nations of the region.
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