San José, Oct 22 (EFE) .- A group of experts gathered in a forum highlighted the urgency of recognizing the economic and social contribution of agriculture in its proper dimension, as well as converting commitments into actions, as important steps towards the transformation of food systems in America.
“It is up to us to dignify the contribution of agriculture to humanity, to recognize all the implications it has for human life such as eradicating poverty, promoting socioeconomic development, guaranteeing food and nutritional security, increasing production and trade, without neglecting the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures “, expressed the Minister of Agriculture of Guatemala, José Ángel López.
The official was one of the participants in a forum organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to discuss the transformation of food systems and that was held in parallel to the 2021 World Food Prize.
IICA explained in a statement that representatives of governments, the private sector, researchers and academics participated in the forum.
The exhibitors agreed that it is necessary to increase the recognition of the social and economic contributions of agriculture, meet the needs of producers and value the contribution of the sector to healthy diets, as a way to strengthen the transformation of agri-food systems.
They also expressed that the way in which the commitments and coalitions will be made operational after the recent UN Food Systems Summit and the role that international organizations will play in promoting changes must be defined.
“Today the concept of sustainability has been very well explained and has five dimensions: environmental, agro-economic, economic, social and institutional,” said scientist Rattan Lal, world expert in Soil Sciences and World Food Prize winner in 2020.
Lal stated that achieving these pillars requires coordination and a priority role for IICA as a “catalyst and promoter of the adoption of best management practices in Latin America and the Caribbean, under the Living Soils program, and also to be able to take those experiences to the south from Africa and East Asia ”.
The Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero, said that the transformation of agri-food systems cannot be postponed given the triple crisis scenario: the impact of the pandemic, the economic slowdown and climate change.
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