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The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Muhammad Ibrahim, warned on April 10, 2026, at the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington D.C., that the world cannot guarantee its food, energy, or environmental security without agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean. The region accounts for 22% of global agricultural production and is the world's leading net exporter of food.
The presentation, delivered before approximately 240 in-person and virtual participants, was part of a broader agenda aimed at strengthening regional agriculture, which included meetings with U.S. government officials and multilateral financial institutions. Ibrahim held discussions with Pedro Martel, head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Division at the IDB, who noted that despite this global leadership, 28% of the Latin American population faces food insecurity, and that agricultural productivity growth in the region slowed significantly between 2010 and 2020 due to gaps in technical efficiency.
Ibrahim identified dependence on imported strategic inputs as one of the main sources of vulnerability. He highlighted that countries such as Brazil import more than 80% of their fertilizers, and that these inputs can account for up to 70% of production costs in mechanized systems.
The joint agenda of the IDB and IICA includes medium-term projects focused on food infrastructure and logistics, productive inclusion, and animal and plant health. In the long term, it aims to promote the development of the bioeconomy as a driver of rural transformation.
April 10, 2026 | IICA | https://iica.int/
