The Government of Guyana has nominated Dr Muhammad Ibrahim as the country’s candidate for the position of director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), a key agency for agricultural policies in the Americas.

The heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) endorsed his nomination at a recent meeting in Barbados.

The ministers of agriculture of the 34-member countries of the IICA in the Americas will elect the next director general of IICA at the meeting of its board of directors in the first week of November in Brazil.

Dr Ibrahim is a highly qualified international professional with a solid academic background and extensive management experience and knowledge of agriculture in the region, with enormous contributions to make to the IICA and its member countries.

His international career spans more than 30 years of contributions: he was director general and professor and researcher at CATIE, a key human resources training centre for tropical agriculture, and was representative and director of technical cooperation at IICA.

In his more than 30 years of international professional experience, Dr Ibrahim has developed a range of leadership, management, negotiation, and interpersonal skills to implement technical cooperation programmes in Latin American and Caribbean countries, negotiate with governments, develop regional and global networks and partnerships, mobilise financial resources, and access new donor funds.

For example, during his time as director general of CATIE and director of technical cooperation at IICA, he achieved impressive results in expanding and disseminating access to technologies and innovations in water harvesting, sustainable agroforestry systems for coffee and cocoa, sustainable agroforestry systems, and good plant and animal health practices, as well as in mobilising resources to train experts, with an emphasis on young people in order to address knowledge gaps on agroindustry and sustainable agri-food systems, especially in the Caribbean and Central America.

In addition, Dr Ibrahim participated in the preparation of major regional proposals to expand smart and regenerative agricultural practices. His experience and publications cover the areas of agricultural research and innovation, agricultural production transformation and agri-food systems, smallholder agriculture, food security, environmental and disaster risk management, development of livestock and environmental management systems, and agroforestry systems, among others.

Dr Ibrahim has created a consortium of donors, including multilateral organisations, banks, and the private sector, to finance agricultural research and development projects, and has established institutional partnerships and networks to conduct cutting-edge research on resilient, smart, and regenerative agricultural and agroforestry systems, with the aim of transforming agri-food systems for the health of people and the planet.

Dr Ibrahim’s decades of work in Latin American and Caribbean countries have provided him with a solid understanding of the challenges and solutions to the region’s agricultural and environmental problems, coupled with strong leadership and institutional management skills and expertise in organising regional and international forums on key agricultural issues.

His leadership at IICA will provide a tremendous boost to its strategy to improve regional food and nutrition security, leveraging its networks in science, technology, and innovation to implement modern and resilient agri-food systems. It is time for agriculture. It is time for Guyana to lead IICA.

Dr Saboto Caesar is the minister of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, rural transformation, industry, and labour of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saboto Caesar