To strengthen agriculture´s contribution to the development of rural territories and to rural well-being
IICA supported legal and regulatory innovations, established intersectoral arrangements and implemented institutional management models adapted to the specific needs of different rural territories. It also strengthened the management capabilities of more than 1100 leaders of public institutions, local governments and other organizations in 13 countries, using the area-based (territorial) approach.

Activities:
1. Under the project Innovative Policies for Rural Area-based Development in Latin America (PIDERAL-AECID), IICA developed technical frames of reference for the design of policies in Peru, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica that the countries can also use to articulate sectoral policies at the national and territorial (area) levels. 2. More than 1100 leaders of government agencies, local governments and territorial management organizations in Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and the eight countries of the Central Region took part in courses, training workshops and informational and induction activities. 3. With the support of several partner institutions, the Institute produced a series of international public goods and made them available to the countries via virtual forums and knowledge management networks in the form of electronic and printed publications. 4. In collaboration with the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Agricultural Council (SECAC), the Spain-SICA Fund, and the national commissions responsible for overseeing the implementation of ECADERT, IICA assisted the members of the Central American Integration System (SICA) with the execution of 23 investment projects in specific rural territories.

www.iica.int/eng/Programs/RuralTerritories/Pages/default.aspx

Beneficiaries:
1100 leaders of government agencies, local governments and territorial management organizations

Partners and financing:
Governments, AECID-Spain, SICA, SECAC

100 Scholarships Annually
The Government of Mexico, aware of the need to contribute, along with IICA, to the strengthening of technical capacities in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in terms of giving high priority to agriculture, has agreed through CONACYT, to offer 100 scholarships per year to professionals in LAC who wish to undertake postgraduate programs in sustainable agriculture.

Activities:
Under IICA’s agreement with Mexico’s National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT) to provide scholarships for students of agriculture, by year’s end 98 professionals from 20 LAC countries were engaged in doctoral studies (21), master’s degree programs (73), and specialization courses (4) in Mexican higher education institutions. As many as 1153 applications were received, demonstrating the high demand for such opportunities in LAC.

www.iica.int/Eng/becasconacytiica/Pages/default.aspx

Beneficiaries:
20 Latin American and Caribbean Countries. A total of 98 professionals were awarded

Partners and financing:
Mexico’s National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT)

To improve the productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector
IICA intends to promote technological, organizational and human innovation to enhance competitiveness, increase production and help improve the operation of agricultural markets in a socially and environmentally sustainable way. These efforts are focus on small and medium-scale agricultural producers, who have limited access to markets.

Activities:
1. More than 30 instruments were validated as part of an IICA agribusiness toolbox, which strengthened the capabilities of 30 producers’ organizations in Ecuador, Paraguay and Guatemala; in addition, approximately 5000 agriculture sector stakeholders received training in business management, aggregation of value and promotion of exports, among other topics. 2. Thanks to the strengthening of the Institute’s links with the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Codex Alimentarius, its member countries were able to participate in virtual meetings, forums and committees in which plant health and food safety standards were discussed and approved. 3. Working with its strategic partners, IICA implemented projects to create two virtual schools for food and plant health inspectors in the Central and Southern regions. 4. The Institute supported field operations in Mexico aimed at maintaining the country’s phytosanitary status as an area free of the Mediterranean fruit fly; in Paraguay, efforts were aimed at restoring the country’s status as an area free from foot-and-mouth disease with vaccination; and in Central America, the focus was on combating coffee leaf rust. 5. The Market Information Organization of the Americas (MIOA), made up of 33 countries, was consolidated as a hemispheric network. Fourteen officials from the Caribbean region received training in the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on agricultural prices and markets. 6. Five Caribbean countries launched processes aimed at improving the competitiveness of priority agrifood chains after the support of IICA to strengthen their capabilities, promote dialogue, among others. 7. Promotion of changes in policies on agricultural insurance in Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay and Peru.

www.iica.int

Beneficiaries:
55 officials from18 Latin American Countries. Producers organizations and stakeholders, Phitosanitary services, MIOA, and regional organizations like Standing Veterinary Committee, Plant Health Committee and the Central American Agricultural Council.

Partners and financing:
International Organizations: IPPC, OIE, Codex Alimentarius, PAHO, Governments of USA, Mexico, Canada, Ecuador, Paraguay, Central America and Caribbean.

To improve the productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector (Innovation)
IICA intends to promote technological, organizational and human innovation to enhance competitiveness, increase production and help improve the operation of agricultural markets in a socially and environmentally sustainable way. These efforts are focus on small and medium-scale agricultural producers, who have limited access to markets.

Activities:
1. Under the leadership of the project for managing innovation systems, executed under the aegis of the Forum for the Americas on Agricultural Research and Technology Development (FORAGRO), the stakeholders of the Hemispheric Agricultural Innovation System laid the foundations for improving the coordination of innovation processes and devised a new investment strategy for the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology (FONTAGRO). 2. Under the Regional Program for Research and Innovation in Agricultural Value Chains (PRIICA-EU), Central American small-scale producers involved in 24 local public-private innovation consortia designed projects for the development and validation of technologies and strategic innovation plans.. 3. The Agricultural Innovation Network (Red SICTA-SDC), another project executed in Central America, benefited 28,600 smallholders by sharing 29 innovative technologies applicable to different links in the maize and bean chains. 4. With IICA’s support, the Initiative for Central America on Biotechnology and Biosafety (ICABB) was established and the Advisory Committee on Bio-inputs for Agricultural Use-CABUA) of Argentina was consolidated. 5. With IICA’s methodological support and assistance from the Technical Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (ICOA), Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia reached agreements and approved a regional proposal for the regulation of organic production. 6. At least 2400 members of the national innovation systems in the countries of the South American tropics now have access to the results of studies carried out by the research, development and innovation networks for cocoa, coffee, agro-energy, animal production, aquaculture, genetic resources (Tropigen), agricultural, forest and fishery systems and the Amazon Initiative. 7. In the Caribbean, IICA improved farmers’ access to technological advances, germplasm and production manuals for citrus, rice, potato and other roots and tubers by means of links established with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA) of Uruguay, the International Potato Center (CIP) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 8. Other innovations generated included: The bell pepper genetic material used by producers in western parts of Costa Rica’s Central Valley (UCR-INTA Costa Rica); pure physic nut oil was supplied to Ecuador’s Isla Floreana; and a low-cost forage with high nutritional content that does not require a specific climate (UNA Paraguay). 9. Strengthening of the Alliance of Agricultural Information Services SIDALC www.sidalc.net; the Network for the Management of Innovation in the Agrifood Sector (INNOVAGRO Network) www.redinnovagro.in and the Repository of resources for information management-IMARK www.imarkgroup.org

www.iica.int

Beneficiaries:
Producers, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, 28600 smallholders, +400 organizations and institutions related with research and education, local networks of agrifood chains, 400 professionals related with biotechnology & biosafety, among others.

Partners and financing:
FORAGRO, Regional Programs for Research and Innovation (PROCI), International Research Institutes, EMBRAPA, FAO, SDC, EU, UNEP-GEF, Governments of Souther Cone, Central America, Caribbean, USA, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, among others.

Information available in Spanish