Towards an alliance in America for food security

The food crisis that hangs over the world also has important repercussions for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Not confronting it, or combating it in a disjointed way, will bring painful costs, compromising peace and the future of our societies, hit after two years of pandemic, a decade of low economic expansion and increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

Food security problems occur in a context specific to the region: between 2012 and 2019, Latin America and the Caribbean had the lowest growth rate since the “lost decade” of the 1980s.

Given this reality of weak economic performance and a pandemic, the war in Eastern Europe sent the prices of energy, fertilizers and several of the main agricultural products skyrocketing, in the midst of a worrying climate situation.

With this panorama, food security is integrated into the main challenges posed by low economic growth, poverty and inequality, environmental sustainability and macroeconomic conditions.

The World Bank's food price index was 87% above the same month in 2020 in May. This is a level that, for now, is below other crisis situations that occurred in the 1970s and in 2008, but those previous experiences have taught us what to do and what not to do in the face of the imbalances that arise.

The American countries must continue advocating for the end of the armed conflict in Eastern Europe and insist that it does not affect the production and export of food and agricultural supplies from the war zone

Considering the regional dimension, it is relevant to reaffirm the central role of the American continent as the world's largest net food exporter and, therefore, guarantor of the planet's food security.

This condition imposes as a responsibility the coordinated work to face the common challenge and demands as challenges to maintain and strengthen the production and export capacity of the continent, and avoid commercial measures that increase the levels of insecurity and volatility in international markets.

Several of the main food producing and exporting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, together with the United States and Canada, signed a commitment in this direction at the recent Summit of the Americas.

The American countries must continue to advocate for the end of the armed conflict and insist in the meantime that it does not affect the production and export of food and agricultural supplies that come from the war zone.

Within the continent, despite the aggregate view of the Americas as a net exporter, it is imperative to adopt measures to facilitate intra-regional trade, humanitarian assistance, and financial support for net importing countries, particularly the English-speaking Caribbean, Haiti, and Central America. .

In exporting countries, moreover, poverty and food insecurity have been aggravated by the pandemic and inflationary pressures.

Policy responses to this scenario must consider both consumers and producers.

Regarding the former, it is necessary to prioritize actions of social protection and food assistance for the most vulnerable, instead of generalized energy subsidies or restrictions on international trade.

From the point of view of production, the focus in the short term should be aimed at minimizing the impacts on the 2022/2023 production cycle.

Promoting permanent public-private consultations to monitor prices, guarantee an adequate supply of fertilizers and ensure financing from the banking system in order to counteract increases in production costs, are some of the tools to consider to achieve this objective.

The latter does not, of course, exclude the possibility of applying targeted subsidies to fertilizers in some special cases.

It is also essential to implement medium-term actions to improve resilience.

To this end, a set of initiatives is proposed that includes the design, financing and implementation of a new generation of public policies to strengthen agrifood systems, work that will have the support of the recently created Observatory of Policies on Agrifood Systems (OPSAA). ) of IICA, a platform for the exchange of information and good practices and the monitoring of progress in the food situation.

A positive transformation of agri-food systems will have positive impacts on global food and environmental security, in addition to reducing migration problems

In the current situation, the reinforcement of work in science, technology and innovation to close gaps in productivity and the expansion of production including family farming acquires even greater relevance, for which it is necessary to promote associativism and cooperative development.

The challenges are immense, but the Americas, a young, green and peaceful continent, have the resources, the people and the institutions to build a better future for all.

The current situation does not have to become a humanitarian crisis if countries work together.

We need a true continental alliance for food security.

A positive transformation of agri-food systems will result in economic, social and environmental benefits for the region and will have positive impacts on global food and environmental security, in addition to reducing migration problems.

Urgent action is needed to build a new vision for agriculture in the Americas.

In this activity are the solutions for the great challenges of the contemporary world, among them those of ensuring peace and democratic stability.

Manuel Otero

is Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). 

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