Countries in the Americas have a long history of collaboration for the promotion of scientific and technological progress to improve agricultural production and trade, helping farmers and rural development and ensuring food security and nutrition in the continent. Two notable moments of regional collaboration were the 1930 First Inter-American Conference on Agriculture that took place in Washington, DC, to address the production and trade problems caused by the Great Depression; and then the 1942 Inter-American Conference on Agriculture held in Maryland, USA, to deal with the trade and production disruptions created by WWII. One of the outcomes of this last conference was the creation of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to foster agricultural research, education, and technical cooperation, applying scientific advances to improve productivity, pest control, crop yields, and rural development, and thus ensuring food security and economic growth.

In other words, IICA was created to collectively address specific technical problems in agriculture and rural development affecting the farmers and people of the Americas. In the more than 82 years of its existence, IICA has worked with governments, farmers, and the private sector of the continent to do just that.

After World War II, IICA supported the scientific and technological innovations of the “Green Revolution,” which largely emerged in the Americas. Those technological advances led to remarkable declines in hunger worldwide and were the foundation for the emergence of the continent as the leading net food exporting region, becoming a crucial anchor for global food security.

One of the Institute’s distinctive strengths is its ability to facilitate cooperation among different sectors. In a context where agricultural and food challenges increasingly require coordination among the public sector, farmers, private enterprises, academia, civil society, and international organisations, the IICA is uniquely positioned to provide a neutral and credible institutional space for substantive dialogue. The case of the Continental Alliance for Food Security and Sustainable Development is a great example: more than 200 public and private partners are working together on hemispheric challenges, such as food and nutrition security, agro-environmental resilience, agricultural trade, transparent regulatory frameworks, and rural development.

IICA’s role in bringing together the Americas for agricultural diplomacy was also demonstrated at various global forums, including the 2021 UN Summit on Food Systems, where the institute facilitated the development of collective positions that strengthened the region’s voice at the global level. In this and other instances, the institute has consistently advocated for science-based trade practices to counter capricious non-tariff barriers that unfairly limit agricultural exports from the Americas.

IICA has been also supporting countries to implement scientifically grounded standards and disease prevention systems to combat animal and plant health in the Americas. A recent example has been the technical and financial support to screwworm eradication and mitigation of transboundary movements between Mexico and the US. IICA coordinates the Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) network and the Regional “One Health” Group, addressing other regional challenges such avian flu, fruit fly, and foot and mouth disease.

In partnership with large private sector companies and under the principle of “turning science into action,” it achieved significant results in soil restoration through its Living Soils of the Americas programme, with the Lal Carbon Center at Ohio State University.

Following the priorities of its member countries, from the recent Small Family Farmers Policy of the USDA to similar approaches in many other countries, IICA supports family farmers, helping them adapt to specific threats such as soil erosion, droughts, and extreme heat, and promote sensible environmental approaches to enhance resilience and strengthen disaster prevention.

Another important area of IICA’s work relates to biofuels and the bioeconomy, where it has brought together farmers and private companies to help expand access to affordable, reliable and secure energy, and create other production and employment opportunities.

By strengthening rural economies, expanding income opportunities, and building farmers’ resilience to extreme weather events, these programmes also tackle some of the root causes of internal and international migration and displacement of population, diminishing the negative impacts on other countries of the Americas.

IICA has promoted production diversification as well, to ensure the affordability of healthy diets and to combat the growing problem of obesity and related diseases, which has led to a series of initiatives in the Americas, from the labelling requirements in Chile, Uruguay and other countries to the US initiative to “Make America Healthy Again.”

Given the multiple challenges and shocks to agriculture and food production and recognising the concerns about the effectiveness of multilateral institutions and the limitations in financial resources, IICA has continued to prioritise technical assistance focusing consistently on its core responsibilities. It has become a model of efficient, agile, demand-driven, and results-oriented technical cooperation, with strong credibility and recognised influence in regional and global discussions on agriculture, food security, and rural development. And it has performed its functions always hiring the best qualified people, without discrimination of any type; promoting cooperation and the joint work of governments and the private sector; and responsibly managing budgets and resources with transparency and accountability.

Strengthening the role of IICA is a strategic decision. It involves investing in integrated technical solutions, promoting science as an ally of agricultural production, and reinforcing the Americas’ capacity to respond to global challenges with innovation, improving animal and plant health, while promoting policies that facilitate production, diversified and fair agricultural trade, the private sector and markets, and the well-being of rural populations on our continent. With the support of IICA and other partners, farmers in the Americas will continue to feed the population of our continent and will be a fundamental pillar of global food security as the world’s leading net food exporter.