Latin America and the Caribbean vindicates its role in global agricultural sustainability

Latin America and the Caribbean has enviable agricultural potential. According to the FAO, we have the highest proportion of arable land (28%), and by 2050 the world will demand 60% more food. This places the region in an enviable position to supply food to the world and, thereby, guarantee global food security.

Global experts such as Jeffrey Sachs, professor at Columbia University, Maximo Torero, chief economist of the FAO, Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Program for the United States, and Juan Esteban Orduz, president of the World Food Producers Forum, debated this topic. Coffee.

“There needs to be an active financial partnership with communities, governments and organizations for a comprehensive sustainable development program,” said Sachs, who explained the coffee sustainability project in which he participates in Colombia to build a global vision and a local perspective that allows us to understand the needs of the communities, and that manages to apply sustainability criteria throughout the productive chain.

"At CAF we believe that the environmental issue and the agricultural issue must be closely related. Only through sustainable agriculture will we be able to ensure that the region continues to fulfill its role as a food supplier. We understand that everything is a cycle and that is why we are developing numerous projects and we have alliances with various organizations with which we are working to be able to materialize the role of the region also as a solution in agricultural terms," ​​said Alicia Montalvo, manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity at CAF.

"We need to produce good food for today and tomorrow. If we continue producing as we are, we will not achieve good food for tomorrow. The region produces 14% of the world's agricultural and livestock products. At the same time, it is a region vulnerable to climate change "We are failing in the part of the externalities that are generated. The pandemic led us to 7% of chronic malnutrition, but the most surprising thing is that the cost of a healthy diet is one of the highest in the world," said Maximo Torero.

For his part, Lloyd C. Day, deputy director of IICA, said that "we live in a region that offers biodiverse solutions. One of the things we must talk about is increasing productivity in the region. We can use learning from indigenous communities, of new technologies. We have to work with the private sector as we try to address food production for eight billion people.