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In This Issue

IICA Launches its Flagship Pro-jects for the Next Four Years

USDA and IICA signed addition-al funds for IICA projects and programs

IICA Hosts Roundtable: Innova-tion for Youth Development in Agriculture in the Americas

IICA Supports 2015 Summits of the Americas Process

Workshop: Building a Water Agenda for South America: Road to Korea 2015

IICA Launches Dialogue for Agricultural Policies in the Americas

IICA Attends the 2014 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa

Sub-Regional Workshop Held in Guatemala on Scenario and Policy Development for Trifinio region of Central America

FONTAGRO Reaffirms Its Com-mitment to Innovation and Fam-ily Farming Adaptation to Climate Change

Exploring South- South Cooper-ation for Agricultural Innovation

Research Efforts to Improve Avocado Fruit Quality Support-ed by PROCINORTE

How does IFPRI’s Global Hun-ger Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index complement each other?

To what extent does the agricul-tural sector contribute to eco-nomic resilience in times of crisis in LAC?

Upcoming Events

From the Desk of the Representative

Welcome to our New Edition of the IICA Office in the USA Newsletter! The time passed from our last newsletter to today appear to

have flown faster than usual, which certainly means that the IICA Office in the Unit-ed States has been busy! This newsletter we are sharing with you today, is part of our efforts to keep you informed of the Institute activities and to invite you to join us in our efforts to develop a more equitable, productive and sustainable agriculture and to improve the livelihoods of rural communities across our continent. The last three months have been witnesses to important political and economic events that could impact agriculture in the hemisphere. As result of the mid-term elections, the Republican Party obtained majority in the Senate, for the first time since 2006. President Obama has taken executive action on immigration which ex-pect to result in deportation deferrals and authorizations to work for approximately 4 million immigrants. Most recently an agreement has been reached between the two parties to keep the Federal Government running, at least for the next 10 months. On the economic side, during this period, unemployment in the USA has hit its lowest level since 2008, being around 5.9 to 6.1%, while oil prices have decreased well below the $100.00 per barrel. The impact of this decline surely will be felt in all are-as of the economy and agriculture would not be immune to them, particularly in the area of biofuels, as consumers will find them less attractive to purchase. Socially, we are experiencing an increase in civil demonstrations demanding more attention to police actions and to reduce social inequalities. On a lighter note, in October we saw the San Francisco Padres to win a new World Series. Internally, IICA continues to implement its current Medium Term Plan 2014—2018 with the implementation of our Four Flagship Projects that will address the most pressing needs of our country members in the areas of competitiveness, family agri-culture, social inclusion and resiliency of food systems. As these projects advance, we will share with you the results and progress, as they represent the backbone of IICA’s technical cooperation. During the period of September to December, our office continues to work to support the USA international agenda in agriculture and to strengthen IICA’s image and technical cooperation. Part of these efforts have resulted in several technical cooperation projects financed by the USDA; the imple-mentation (in collaboration with the IICA Office in Brazil), of a series of seminars to analyze and help in the design of agricultural public policies for the post 2015 agenda; the support of the Summit of the America Process, the support of the Glob-al Alliance for Smart Agriculture initiative and the strengthening of South to South cooperation for agriculture innovation. Also our professionals have been actively participating in international fora and conferences sharing their views and knowledge on relevant issues for the future of agriculture. As the end of year approaches, the Holiday Season gives us the time to reflect on the past, and to dream of the future, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your friendship and support and to wish you, your loved ones and your organizations the best for a very happy 2015.

Sincerely,

Dr. Miguel García-Winder, IICA Representative in the USA, Head of CAESPA

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September –December 2014

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IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

IICA Launches its Flagship Projects for the Next Four Years

September 23, marked the official launch of the major projects under which the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will perform its work during the period 2014-2018. The projects in question will enable the organization to support agricultural development in the hemisphere in a highly efficient and transparent man-ner. The flagship projects (FPs) will focus on:

Competitiveness and sustainability of agricultural chains for food security

economic development;

Inclusion in agriculture and rural territories;

Resilience and comprehensive risk management in agriculture;

Productivity and sustainability of family agriculture for food security and the rural economy.

The projects are set out in IICA’s 2014-2018 Medium-term Plan (MTP), approved by the organization’s Executive Committee in May. Víctor M. Villalobos, the Director General of the Institute, explained that the new cooperation model is designed to obtain results of the highest quality that will impact agriculture in the 34 member countries by means of verifiable and measurable contributions to the improvement of productivity and competitiveness, food security and rural development, and climate change mitigation and ad-aptation. Furthermore, IICA aims to make concrete contributions to agricultural innovation, the efficient use of water in agriculture and great-er inclusion of family farming and rural women and young people. In order to achieve its objectives, IICA has adopted a results-based management approach, with the FPs being used to harness all the institution’s technical capabilities via its network of specialists in the countries of the Americas and Spain. Read more about the flagship projects.

USDA and IICA Signed Additional Funds for IICA Projects and Programs

The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) signed an amendment to the Cooperative Agreement Joint Technical Cooperation Projects, Training, and Workshops signed in 2010. The additional funding of $475,000.00 will finance Codex Colloquiums and Coordinated Codex Meeting Attendance, Strengthening Bilat-eral Trade, Toto Agriculture and IICA/MIOA Market Information Projects. USDA and IICA signed other amendments within the framework of the General Agreement for Cooperation. FAS awarded $400,000 to provide funding for the Agricultural Science Leadership Training Program to support ten additional CATIE scholarships, committed $175,000 to the USDA-IICA Associate Professional Officer Pro-gram (APO), and financed $98,178 for the Biotechnology Conference for Central American Regulatory Decision Makers.

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IICA Hosts Roundtable: Innovation for Youth Development in Agriculture in the Americas

With the objective of discussing the challenges of youth in agriculture and identifying partnerships for joint work in Latin America and the Caribbean, on the 17th and 18th of September 2014 a meeting was held at IICA Headquarters in Costa Rica that brought together representatives from academic and agricultural institutions from seven countries in the Ameri-cas. The work began with a review of the main challenges that face youth in agriculture, primarily emphasizing the limited access to knowledge, information, and education, productive and social assets, basic services, and participation in policy dialogues and decision making. Subsequently, the participating institutions presented their primary lines of work in the countries in the region, which served to identify areas with the greatest potential for collaboration under the three main pillars of: research, extension, and capacity building for youth. According to the participating institutions, the areas of work that should be focused on in such collaborative efforts are summarized in Figure 1. The institutions agreed that it is essential to work on the construction of an Inter-American Alliance for Youth Development in the Americas that will enhance and complement the work of all the participating organizations in the region. This main objective should start with short-term actions that enable strengthened networks and generate joint projects in the future. The participating organizations agreed to start joint work specifically in: Networks that allow for more effective communication between researchers, youth, extension workers, and decision

makers. Academic networks that foster joint work and the shared use of research tools (especially best practices and lessons

learned) among the participating institutions. Fostering effective dialogue between youth and decision makers. More information: hugo.chavarria@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

Figure 1

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IICA Supports the Summits of the Americas Process for 2015

IICA has been present at the meetings of the Permanent Council of the Organization of Ameri-can States (OAS), actively participating and supporting member countries, especially on issues related to institutional activities. Among the many relevant topics presented and discussed at the OAS, there have been various meetings held to discuss the “Seventh Summit of the Americas” with the theme "Prosperity with Equity: The Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas" which will take place in Panama, on April 10th -11th, 2015. These regular meetings were held by the supporting organs, the Sum-mit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) and the Joint Summit Working Group (JSWG). During the First Regular Meeting of 2014 of the SIRG, preparations started “identifying the theme of the next Summit of the Americas involved a comprehensive analysis of the issues behind our region’s noteworthy prosperity and of the matters that require our additional attention in order to ensure sustainable and equitable development for our countries”. With these words, H. E. Luis Miguel Hincapié, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, gave introductory remarks and presented the preparato-ry and logistical issues facing this important meeting in Panama. Under the JSWG, where IICA is actively involved since its inception, there have been three meetings of much relevance to posi-tion and publicize the Summit’s main theme. During the first meeting, Panama's Foreign Affairs Ministry asked the member insti-tutions of the group, to make an analysis of the proposed theme, “Prosperity with Equity”, from the unique perspective and top-ics that each institution covers in the Hemisphere. IICA prepared the document: “Agriculture And Rural Life, Contribution Of The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA)”, which was presented by IICA’s Representative in the USA, Dr. Miguel Garcia and was welcomed by the Panamanian authorities during the 3rd Group’s meeting, on October 27th. To learn about the upcoming Summit of the Americas you can follow here. More information: Alfredo.valerio@iica.int

Workshop: Building a Water Agenda for South America: Road to Korea 2015

On September 18-19, 2014, a workshop was held at the Organization of American States (OAS) as part of the preparatory pro-cess underway in the region to develop the Water Agenda for the Americas to be presented at the 7th World Water Forum taking place in Korea in April 2015.

Representatives from the OAS, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and others met to review the current situation of the water sector in South America in order to establish the strategic vision and future lines of action for a consolidat-ed water agenda for the Americas.

Discussions centered around six thematic priorities including water and food security, climate change adaptation and risk man-agement, ecosystem management, water and sanitation services, water and energy, and governance and finance for sustaina-bility. A three year regional agenda around these topics will be developed.

Read more: http://www.oas.org/en/sedi/dsd/GeneralDocs/TallerAGUA.pdf (Spanish)

More information about the7th World Water Forum: http://worldwaterforum7.org

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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IICA Launches Dialogue for Agricultural Policies in the Americas

The IICA Office in Brazil, the IICA Office in the United States, and the Center for Strategic Analysis for Agriculture (CAESPA) have created an opportunity for dialogue in the Americas regarding agricultural policies through a series of virtual policy seminars. The objective of this dialogue is to support IICA’s member countries in defining their agricultural policies, keyed to the construction of the post-2015 development agenda.

Agriculture has a major role to play in responding to the urgent need to strengthen food security, and to ensure inclusive economic and social development, and environ-mental sustainability, in line with the Millennium Development Goals and the discus-sions surrounding the post-2015 development agenda. Given the challenge of having policies and institutions consistent with the trends, chal-lenges, and opportunities of the future, this series of seminars serves to establish a mechanism for dialogue among IICA’s member countries to facilitate awareness, anal-ysis and identification of lessons that can be applied to the specific conditions of each country. The Dialogue for Agricultural Policies in the Amer-icas will feature speakers and panelists that will create a dialogue to exchange information and

knowledge on agricultural policies in different parts of the world and in the countries of the Americas. They will reflect on future challenges for countries in the Americas on issues such as agricultural policy and food security, productivity, natural resource management, climate change, social impacts (feminization, youth and urban-rural migration), agricultural trade, and comprehensive risk management. The cycle of seminars began its first stage with the US agricultural policy (Farm Bill) on 9 Oc-tober 2014, followed by the Brazilian policy on 24 October, Canadian policy on 7 November and closing of this year until next year is a focus on Chilean policy on 20 November. These seminars are disseminated using the Institute’s information and communication technologies and taking advantage of the operating capacity of the IICA Offices. If you would like to participate and view upcoming or past seminars please visit the event pages in English or Spanish. This initiative is aligned with the new institutional priorities set forth in the IICA’s 2014-2018 Medium Term Plan and with IICA’s commitment to contribute to supporting the transformations needed to promote competitive, sustainable and equitable agriculture in the Americas. For further information: joaquin.arias@iica.int

Participants during the Farm Bill Seminar

Participants during the Brazil

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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IICA Attends the 2014 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa

2014 World Food Prize Laureate Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram of India and Mexico honored for his critical work in wheat IICA’s Director General, Dr. Victor Villalobos and IICA Representative in the USA, Dr. Miguel Garcia attended the 2014 Borlaug Dialogue symposium on October 15th – 17th which focused on “The Greatest Challenge in Human History: Can We Sustaina-bly Feed the 9 Billion People on our Planet by the Year 2050?” During the symposium, IICA attended various events including the Global Harvest Initiative launch of the 5th annual Global Agricultural Productivity Report (GAP Report) . As stated in the report “the 2014 GAP Report uncovers both challenging and promising trends. The findings indi-cate that productivity in agriculture is not accelerating fast enough to meet the expected agricul-tural demand by 2050 through sustainable practices. This serves as a call to action to invest in proven strategies that boost productivity and conserve the natural resource base. The report also highlights the rise of promising new global revolutions in agriculture and provides a spotlight on the special case of India.” On October 16th, 2014, Dr. Villalobos attended the Laureate Ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol where Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram of India and Mexico was awarded the World Food Prize for his contributions and critical work in wheat research. As stated in the World Food Prize press release, “Dr. Rajaram worked closely with Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug and bred an impressive 480 varieties of wheat to provide nutritious grains resistant to rust disease and adaptable in a vast array of climates to feed more people.”

Read more about the World Food Prize: http://www.worldfoodprize.org and the 2014 World Food Prize Laureate Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram.

Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram receives the 2014 World Food

Prize. From left to right, are H.E. Enrique Martinez y

Martinez, Mexican Minister of Agriculture; Mr. John

Ruan III, Chairman of The World Food Prize; and

Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Deputy Chief of

Mission for India. Photo credit: World Food Prize

Dr.Sanjaya Rajaram winner of the 2014 World Food Prize,

H.E. Enrique Martinez y Martinez, Mexican Minister of

Agriculture; Dr. Victor Villalobos, Director General of IICA

Photo credit: World Food Prize

Photo credit: World Food Prize

Photo credit: Global Harvest Initiative

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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Sub-Regional Workshop Held in Guatemala on Scenario and Policy Development for the Trifinio region of Central America

A two-day workshop was held in late September in Esquipulas, Guatema-la, by the World Resource Institute (WRI), CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the University for International Cooperation (UCI) and IICA to help decision makers de-velop scenarios to support better water management under a changing climate for the Trifinio Region of Central America. The workshop was designed to teach participants how to use scenarios as a tool to promote effective development planning in the face of the uncer-tainty. Groups developed three scenarios—optimistic, middle of the road, and pessimistic—by integrating information from Aqueduct maps, crop data, and enabling factors and barriers to water management in the area.

As related in WRI’s blog, “Participants then used a technique called ‘back-casting,’ where plans in each scenario are plotted on a timeline starting from 2040 and ending in 2020. This allowed partici-pants to make long and short-term plans. This is important for climate change adapta-tion, and reducing bias to only plan for the near future. The groups then reviewed the plans to test their strength under different scenarios. Those plans that worked under all scenarios are stronger and are referred to as “robust”. Robust plans withstand various uncertainties in the scenarios, and therefore, can be applicable in various decision making contexts.

The scenarios and plans decision makers choose for adaptation and water man-agement will ultimately depend on various factors, such as political feasibility, costs of implementation, and social acceptance of the plan. Whatever the out-come, scenarios provide decision makers a clearer idea of the impact their plans could have, years or even decades in the future.”

Read more about workshop: http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/10/intelligent-imagining-scenarios-manage-water-climate-

changes Other work with WRI: http://water.jhu.edu/magazine/latin-american-experts-need-good-data-to-plan-for-water-stress-and-a-

changing-climate/ More information: Kelly.witkowski@iica.int

Participants of the Workshop

Participants of the Workshop

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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FONTAGRO Reaffirms Its Commitment to Innovation and

Family Farming Adaptation to Climate Change Rionegro, Colombia. With an investment of $ 1.6 million, the FONTA-GRO Board of Directors approved eight regional projects for adaptation of family farming to climate change. The innovations include the imple-mentation of the system of rice intensification, water resources manage-ment and improvement of underutilized native crops. The work will be carried out in partnerships with smallholder farmers in vulnerable areas, and is co-funded by the Global Environment Facility -GEF. Also the Board approved an additional $ 1.6 million for the 2015 call for proposals to strengthen processes of organizational, institutional or tech-nological innovation for the sustainable management of natural re-sources. The purpose is to provide organizations with the necessary tools, knowledge and abilities to implement innovations that promote the sustainable use of land, water and biodiversity. Responding to climate change is a challenge for agriculture in the Hemisphere, explained the President of FONTAGRO José Luis Repetto, from Uruguay. In the coming decades, differences in rainfall, temperatures and the ranges of plants and pest spe-cies will transform agriculture. The most affected are family farmers, he said. FONTAGRO is implementing new partnerships to co-finance projects implemented between its member countries. Currently, for every dollar contributed by FONTAGRO, five and a half dollars are contributed by the participating organizations and coop-erating agencies. During the XVIII Annual Meeting of the FONTAGRO board in Rionegro, Colombia, representatives of the member countries, IICA and the IDB re-defined FONTAGRO’s mission, vision and strategic objectives that will guide the Fund during 2015-20. Family farming will remain the focus of attention. Sustainable intensification in agriculture is becoming a priority for FONTAGRO. The goal of sustainable intensification is to in-crease food production from existing farmland while minimizing pressure on the environment, explained Priscila Henríquez, innovation specialist. It is a response to the challenges of increasing demand for food from a growing global population, in a world where land, water, energy and other inputs are in short supply, overexploited and used unsustainably. If we really believe that Latin America can become the new global food basket, we must continue to support innovative process-es in family farming, insisted Repetto. There are more than 17 million units of family farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean, covering 70% of all farms, and ac-counting for 35% of the land under cultivation. These small units account for 40% of food production and generate 64% of agri-cultural employment. More information: priscila.henriquez@iica.int

Board of Directors of FONTAGRO

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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Exploring South- South Cooperation for Agricultural Innovation

South-South cooperation is about sharing lessons and learning from each other. There are many success stories on innovation that benefit smallholder agricul-ture to be shared between Latin America, Africa and Asia. For instance, results from collaborative research projects in the Americas can be utilized in other re-gions. These topics were discussed recently in Washington by specialist on innovation from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), FONTAGRO, the World Bank and IICA. Yemi Akinbamijo and Irene Annor-Frempong, FARA’s Executive Director and Director of Capacity Strengthening visited the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology – FONTAGRO to learn about its successes co-financing regional research and innovation projects. They were accompanied by Willem Janssen, Lead Agricultural Specialist at the World Bank who is promoting knowledge ex-change between regions. The Cooperative Programs in Agricultural Research and Technology- PROCIS, supported by IICA, were also discussed as a model to promote regional collaboration. Hugo Li Pun and Priscila Henríquez explained how FONTAGRO and the PROCIS are promoting the dissemination of successful cases of innovation in smallholder agriculture, identifying lessons and sharing knowledge across regions. In 2012, an open competition conducted by FONTAGRO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and IICA identified more than a hundred cases of successful innovations in smallholder agriculture. The best cases were featured in the publication “Im-pactful Innovations: Lesson s from Family Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean”. We want to create awareness among decision makers on the need to increase investment to support agricultural innovation and encourage the use of technology and knowledge, indicated Priscila Henríquez. FARA, FONTAGRO and the PROCIS have adopted the agricultural innovation system perspective to strengthening the capacity of their stakeholders to benefit agriculture. More information: priscila.henriquez@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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Research Efforts to Improve Avocado Fruit Quality Supported by PROCINORTE

Researchers from Mexico’s national agricultural research organization, INIFAP and their peers from Agriculture and Agri-Food -Canada, and the United States Department of Agriculture, assessed the state of development of technology to determine avocado fruit maturity through non-destructive methods.

Maturity is a major component of avocado quality and palatability, therefore it is important to harvest fruit at the right maturity stage to ensure that fruit will ripen properly and have acceptable eating quality. Harvesting fruit using current proto-cols involves destructive sampling, and is costly and labor intensive.

Samuel Salazar, fruit specialist from INIFAP, explained that they aim at develop-ing a near infrared spectroscopy instrument to assess avocado dry matter which is an essential component associated with quality of harvested fruit.

The researchers visited avocado orchards in Ciudad Guzman, Mexico planted to 'Mendez' and 'Hass' avocados with fruit at various stages of maturity. They observed field sampling procedures of fruit and dry matter determination done by the Agro González enterprise. These researchers also provided technical assistance to fruit produc-ers.

They discussed the potential use of spectrometry to determine dry matter content in avocado fruit.

The activities have been supported by IICA and the Cooperative Program in Agricultural Research and Technology for the North-ern Region (PROCINORTE) and are part of a long-term project that aims to improve quality of fruits destined to the international markets.

More information: priscila.henriquez@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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How does IFPRI’s Global Hunger Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index complement each other? By Dr. Joaquín Arias, Specialist in Policies and Sector Analyst, IICA

Anyone interested in the subject of food security and its measurements would ask why there are so many indicators out there about food security, and if they refer to the same subject or follow similar approaches. This question came up during an event organized by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), to which IICA was invited, entitled “Food Security and the EIU’s Food Commodity Outlook”. At this event, Leo Abruzzese, Global Forecasting Director and Director of Public Policy for The EIU, discussed the latest results from the food security index (commissioned by DuPont.) Derived from that discussion, let me refer and compare in this note IFPRI’s Global Hunger Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index, as two of the indicators that are quite popular and have been in the market for several years. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) was created by the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI). The GHI can be classified as an out-put index, in the sense that it measures the state and evolution of hunger as a proxy for food insecurity. The GHI is calcu-lated at a country and regional level so it can be useful to raise awareness and understanding of trends and regional and country differences in hunger. The GHI measures hunger indirectly by combining three equally weighted indicators: undernourishment, child underweight, and child mortality (see http://goo.gl/sQSyJE for latest estimation). On the other hand, the GFSI is estimated by the EIU, and sponsored by Dupont (see latest report at http://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com). Contrary to the GHI above, the GFSI is an input index, in the sense that is measures the state and evo-lution of variables that contribute or are considered drivers for food security across countries. If GHI is an output index, and the GFSI is an input index, then there should be a high negative correlation between both (negative because for the GHI, zero is the best score and 100 is the worst score). Check the numbers (comparing trends, countries and indi-cators) and see if countries that solved or made progress on issues known to have a positive impact on food security had a better performance according to the GHI index. In the process, as stated by The Economist Intelligence Unit in its web page, one can “begin exploring the challenges and then developing solutions.” For further information: joaquin.arias@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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To what extent does the agricultural sector contribute to economic resilience in times of crisis in LAC?

By Dr. Joaquín Arias, Specialist in Policies and Sector Analyst, IICA

The growth forecasts for this year and for 2015 of Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) economies are not very encouraging as was the tone of the presentations made at the XVIII Annual CAF Conference, on September 3-4, 2014 (see agenda and presen-tations: http://goo.gl/MzwgVJ). However, nothing was said about the prospects for growth in the agricultural sector and that is why a question occurred to me of whether agriculture will follow the same fate, or else grow counter-cyclically to the rest of the economy, damping as in the past the negative effects of economic crisis. The LAC economy is expected to grow only 2% this year (the lowest growth in 13 years) and will reverse to the long term trend for coming years of close to 3%. Such forecasts explain why the section on the economy at the conference was called “Is the party over?” referring to the end of the recent period of economic prosperity in LAC. Low growth reflects the fall in international commodity prices (end of a cycle of high prices) and low levels of investment and exports. The presentation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stressed the need for long-term investments to increase productivity, as the surest path to growth rates of 4 to 4.5% annually in the coming years. My own analysis (see Figure 1) shows that the long-term growth rate for (1970-2013) the LAC economy is 3.1%, while growth of the agricultural sector is 2.5%. However, in the last decade, agricultural growth has slowed, which has increased the growth gap relative to the overall economy. The sector grew 2.1% annually in the last decade, while the economy grew at a rate of 3.4% per annum, representing a lag of 1.3 percentage points. Let us return to the issue that prompted this article. In the literature, the stabilizing role that the agricultural sector has historically played in times of economic crisis is widely recognized. For example, it is notable how agriculture grew 9.2% during the crisis of 1982-1983, while the growth of the overall economy was only 1.2%. Again during the downturn of the economy in the period 2001-2002 (0.4%), agriculture grew nearly eight times more (3.1%). However, since 2006 the sector has followed the same cyclical pattern as the rest of the economy (see Figure 2). For period 2006 – 2013, agricultural product increased 1.9%, while the economy grew by 3.2%. The question is (given the prospects for economic growth in LAC between 2% and 3% for the next few years) whether agriculture will continue fulfilling its historic role of serving as a cushion in times of crisis. It is expected that for 2014 agriculture will show positive and greater growth than the overall economy due to the boom in com-modity production reported from several countries (particularly soybean), which is a result of the price stimulus that benefited the sector in recent years. However, the outlook for the coming years may not be as encouraging once the sector absorbs the shock of lower international prices seen in recent months, a trend that is expected to continue according to recent predictions by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI: see http://goo.gl/4lHWg0). As a November report by The Economist In-telligence Unit predicts, lower commodity prices will worsen the terms of trade for Latin America. For further information: joaquin.arias@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

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IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014

Contact Us

IICA Office in the USA

1889 F Street, N.W.,

Suite 360,

Washington, D.C. 20006

Phone: 202-458-3767

Fax: 202-458-6335

Website: www.iica.int/usa

Email: iica.us@iica.int

Twitter: @IICA_USA

February 13th, 2015 — Fifth Agricultural Insurance Symposium in the Americas,

Washington, DC, USA

February 19th—20th, 2015 — USDA 2015 Agricultural Outlook Forum - "Smart Agriculture in the 21st Century", Arlington, Virginia, USA

April 16th, 2015 — The Chicago Council, Global Food Security Symposium – “Advancing Global Food Security: Improving Nutrition and Health Through Food Systems”, Washington, DC, USA

Information and Knowledge Management for Development Training

In collaboration with a number of our global partners, IICA would like to share with you related courses on information and knowledge management for develop-ment. The ten self taught courses which are free of charge to anyone interested is available on CD or from www.imarkgroup.com has been produced in English, Spanish and French. Learn more: http://www.imarkgroup.org

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—September – December 2014