1

In This Issue

Strengthening IICA Relationships with Partners and Member Countries

Visit by IICA Deputy Director

General Farewell to Dr. Marcos Sanchez Internships in Office IICA Participated at “Water

Week Latin America 2014” Purchase for Progress (P4P):

Technical Review Panel Strengthening Dialogue on

Agriculture and Climate Change in Latin America

IICA & WRI Hosts Workshop on

Agricultural Water Risk Maps for Governments in Latin America

IICA Presents on Biotechnology

and Climate Change during Foreign Service Institute Course

IICA Speaks at International

Seminar on New Developments in Agrometeorology to Combat Climate Risks

What is PROCINORTE? US, Canada, Mexico Discuss

Bovine Tuberculosis Control Strategies with support from PROCINORTE

PROCINORTE Promotes the Use

of New Tools for Understanding Emerging Pests

MIOA Tours World's Largest

Enclosed Refrigerated Wholesale Produce Terminal

Possible Impact of the U.S.

Agricultural Act of 2014 on the Agricultural Sector in LAC

Upcoming Events

From the Desk of the Representative

Welcome to our New Edition of the IICA Office in the USA Newsletter!

This edition of our Newsletter cover the activities carried out by the IICA Office in the USA during the latter part of June to the end of August. It is pro-duced to inform our stakeholders, our partners, our offices and all of those interested in IICA and in Agriculture and Rural Life, on the activities carried out by our Institute, the USA Office and the Center for the Strategic Analysis for Agriculture (CAESPA). The period of time covered in this newsletter has been characterized by three important international events that have dominated the news and caught the attention of policy makers, donor and assistance agencies and the private sector. One of these events has been the intensification of socio-political conflicts around the world that pose a serious threat to peace, development, stability and trade. Secondly the spread of the Ebola epidemic in various countries in Africa, that remind us of the fragility of our systems and the need to work jointly to develop common strategies to protect our more valuable resource: human lives. Thirdly, and closer to home, we have been witness to an unprecedented rise in the illegal immigration of unaccompanied children and youth from the “Northern Triangle” of the Central American Region and Mexico, with important humanitarian, social, economic and political consequences for all the countries involved. Internally, our Institute continues to work to strengthen its technical cooperation model, to create a result oriented culture, to improve its administrative procedures and to strengthen its human capacity. Our office has continued to work with our shareholders to raise the importance of agri-culture in the Americas and to develop meaningful proposals to help in the solution of the pressing challenges of our times. The IICA office in the USA and CAESPA would like to thank you for your support and interest in our activities and at the same time we would like to reiterate to you our commitment to continue to serve in the advancement of a sustainable, competitive and inclusive agriculture in the Americas.

Sincerely,

Dr. Miguel García-Winder IICA Representative in the USA

Head of CAESPA

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

2

Strengthening IICA Relationships with Partners and Member

Countries One of the main priorities of the IICA Office in the USA is to strengthen IICA presence with our strategic part-ners and country members. During the period of time covered by this newsletter, our office has approached the agricultural attachés from Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Mexico as well as the attachés from Australia and France with whom we have shared the principles of our 2014—2018 Medium Term Plan and with whom we have explored possibilities for technical cooperation. Also during this time our office has conducted conversations with FAO, IDB, World Bank, IFPRI and the World Food Program. With the private sector the office has continue to cooperate with the Global Harvest Initiative on the preparation of their yearly report which will focus on India. Also we have initiated conversations with John Deere to explore the possibility of developing cooperation activities around the issue of machinery for small and family agricul-ture. We continue to work, in cooperation with our Biotechnology specialist, with the American Soybean Associ-ation to promote of science based facts about biotechnology and its contribution to production and food security.

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

IICA Office in the USA is visited by IICA Deputy Director General

Mr. Lloyd Day, IICA´s Deputy Director General visited our Office from July 15th to the 18th. During his visit he attended the 2014 Agricultural Foreign Attachés conference where he led several meetings with the agricultural attaches assigned to the Countries of the Americas and with the private sector to continue to strengthen IICA relationships for the advancement of agriculture in the hemisphere. During his visit he also met with Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, Mr. Michael Scuse, where they discussed common areas of interest and alternatives to increase IICA’s visibility in the USA political environment. Additionally, Mr. Day met with Ambassador Carmen Lomellin, US Permanent Secretary to the Organiza-tion of American States with whom he discussed current IICA efforts to help rural economic development

in the countries from where the USA is receiving an influx of children and young immigrants.

Farewell to Dr. Marcos Sanchez

We all from the IICA Office in the USA and from CAESPA want to wish our colleague Dr. Marcos Sanchez the best of the lucks in his new position at Texas Tech. Marcos led our efforts in Food Safety for the last five years and worked tireless to improve the capacity of hundreds of professional and regulators in food safety. We will certainly miss his knowledge, wisdom and friendship. Good luck at Texas Tech!

3

“I learned more than I could have ever expected during my time at IICA, on the technical side as well as on the personal side. I am very grateful to IICA’s team in the USA for their support, their guidance and for integrating me as a genuine member of IICA.” - Camille Michel Camille Michel, a student in Agricultural Engineering at the Parisian School AgroParisTech in France, has just completed a five month internship at the IICA office in the USA. During her time at the Institute, Camille focused on natural resource and climate change issues in agriculture, working closely with Kelly Witkowski, IICA’s Agriculture and Climate Change Officer on the issues of climate-related water risks in agriculture and the costs of climate change in the hemisphere. Camille’s work contributed to a broader initiative driven by IICA to more

strongly position the agricultural sector of Latin America and the Caribbean in the international climate change debate and negotiations. As part of this effort, she also assisted the organizational team during the first Regional Meeting to Strengthen the Inter-American dialogue on climate change and agriculture, which took place from July 1-3 in IICA’s head-quarters. She took part as well in the process of organizing a workshop on water risks in agriculture in cooperation with the World Resource Institute (WRI), as described on page 5 of this newsletter. Apart from her climate change focused work, Camille also supported the PROCINORTE team, where she helped to develop grant proposals and technical presentations and executed everyday tasks such as contributing to IICA’s knowledge management platform with up to date news and recent publications. Camille has returned to Paris to finish her last year of an engineering degree in agricultural development, after which she is hoping to enter in an International Development program, either in France or abroad.

Camille Michel

Internship in Office from April—August 2014

Internship in Office from September—December 2014

Gabriela Alejandra Arteaga Arredondo from the state of Querétaro in Mexico, is the new intern at the IICA Office in the USA. She holds a B. S. in Food Industry Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Querétaro, with a minor in Research and Development. Her interests are related to Food Science and Agriculture, mainly in Research and Development of technology and strategies to help to reduce food losses and to improve the quality of food products. “At IICA, I hope to gain the understanding of how this institution provides technical cooperation through innovation and specialized knowledge to achieve competitiveness and sustainability in agriculture. Additionally, I would like to understand how organizations work together in public policies related to supporting Latin America in agriculture and food science issues through attending events and networking opportunities and working on projects.” - Gabriela Alejandra Arteaga Arredondo

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

Gabriela Alejandra Arteaga Arredondo

4

Logo source: http://www.conagua.gob.mx/

IICA Participated at “Water Week Latin America 2014”

“Water Week Latin America 2014” was celebrated in Mexico City from June 23rd - 27th, 2014. This event is a platform for “…the exchange of experiences and practices between the scientific, busi-ness, political and civic communities of South and Central America, focused on the water challenges and its impact on the environment, energy, health, climate, economy and society…” and it was cele-brated as part of the preparatory process for the 7th World Water Forum that will be held in Korea in 2015. This event was attended by over 500 participants from 30 countries, including international experts, government officials and functionaries from international and donor organizations. Recognizing the leading role that IICA has in the agriculture of the Americas, the Institute was invited to make a presentation on the important challenges that the agricultural sector faces regarding water use and to share some thoughts on how to improve the efficiency of water use in agriculture. The Institutional presentation, made by Dr. Miguel Garcia-Winder, IICA Representative to the USA and Head of the Center for Strategic Analysis for Agriculture, shared the lessons learned from the process of preparation of document “Water to Feed the Land” conducted by IICA in support to the Inter American Board of Agriculture (IABA), highlighting the four major recommendation of the process and reaffirming IICA commitment to continue to provide leadership for the development of a competitive, sustaina-ble and inclusive agriculture. The four recommendations from the document: Recommendation 1: Promote the institutional strengthening of the Ministries of agriculture Recommendation 2: Promote integrated water management to achieve sustainability in agriculture and address the challenges of climate change Recommendation 3: Strengthen innovation to improve the productivity of water resources in agriculture Recommendation 4: Strengthen the training of human resources in the new paradigms for agriculture IICA´s presentation can be found at : http://www.conagua.gob.mx/Contenido.aspx?n1=4&n2=42&n3=384&n4=411

Purchase for Progress (P4P): Technical Review Panel

As the pilot phase of the P4P approached its conclusion on July 1st—2nd, 2014 the Technical Review Panel (TRP) met for 7th time to provide advice on emerging results and lessons being drawn from the experience of the last five years, as well as to help in the definition of possible routes to follow. The TRP is a panel of invited experts that have served in an unremunerated capacity since 2009 to provide both technical and strategic advice to P4P. Dr. Miguel García-Winder, Representative of IICA to the USA and Head of the Center for Strategic Analysis for Agriculture (CAESPA) has been an active member of this TRP since its inception.

The P4P has been a unique experience that has allowed to explore different alternatives to link small-holder farmers to markets using the WFP´s considerable demand and purchasing power for staple foods, with the technical expertise of partners as a tool to catalyze pro-smallholder market development. IICA works with P4P under an umbrella collaboration on a regional and national level in Latin America, coupling IICA’s capacity development work with WFP’s purchasing power to provide smallholders with an incentive to improve their production. Information regarding the P4P can be found at: www.wfp.org/p4p and it can be followed at Twitter: @WFP_P4P

Logo source: http://www.wfp.org

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

5

Strengthening the Dialogue on Agriculture and Climate Change in Latin America

To advance the Latin American dialogue on climate change and agriculture, a regional meeting was held at IICA’s headquarters in Costa Rica on July 1st—3rd, 2014 to identify topics of common interest and enhance synergies between minis-tries and countries in preparation for the upcoming COP20 to be held in Lima in December 2014. The meeting in Costa Rica was attended by about 90 representa-tives of ministries of agriculture and environment, as well as inter-national cooperation agencies from Latin America. It was organized by IICA, and the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ) with financial support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). During the meeting, the officials agreed that public policies to facilitate the adaptation of agriculture to climate change in the hemi-sphere should be geared toward national development goals rather than simply a sectorial vision. According to an IICA report, in 2013 a total of 17 countries in the Americas sent the UNFCCC notes advocating the creation of a group focused on agriculture. Based on the arguments presented, in June of this year it was agreed that four areas of work would be explored: early warning systems and contingency measures for dealing with extreme events, risk analysis for climate change scenarios, adaptation measures, and practices and technologies for sustainable productivity.

Read more about this event here

Event website: http://infoagro.net/programas/Ambiente/default.aspx

For more information contact: david.williams@iica.int

Attendees of the Meeting on Agriculture and Climate Change in Latin America

IICA & WRI Hosts Workshop on Agricultural Water Risk Maps for Governments in Latin America

IICA and the World Resources Institute (WRI) hosted a workshop at IICA’s Headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica on July 3rd, 2014. This workshop focused on Agricultural Water Risk Maps for Governments in Latin America. The objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness around water risk for agriculture, introduce Aqueduct as a tool to assess and identify water risk and obtain feedback on how to adapt Aqueduct to adequately meet the needs of agricultural decision makers in the Americas. Participants included representatives from the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture from the Americas. The facilitators included Moushumi Chaudhury (WRI), Tien Shiao (WRI), Francis Gassert (WRI), Max Campos (OAS), Kelly Witkowski (IICA), and Bayron Medina (IICA) This workshop is part of a larger effort by IICA and WRI to work with Ministries of Agriculture in

the Americas and other relevant organizations (Ministries of Environment, national agricultural research centers, academia, NGOs, etc.) to raises awareness regarding future water risks under different climate change scenarios to inform agricultural sector adapta-tion plans. A follow up workshop focusing on Scenario and Policy Development for the Trifinio region will be held in late September in Guatemala. More information: Kelly.witkowski@iica.int More information about WRI Aqueduct: http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/aqueduct

Workshop participants during the breakout sessions

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

6

IICA Presents on Biotechnology and Climate Change during Foreign Service Institute Course on Biotechnology and Global Challenges

On July 25th, 2014, Kelly Witkowski participated in a panel discussion on the “Role of Biotech in Addressing Global Challenges” at the Foreign Service Institute, where she spoke about the Role of Biotechnology in Cli-mate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. Joining her on this panel was John McMurdy, USAID who spoke on Food Security and U.S. Government Ca-pacity Building and Avi Gopstein, U.S. Department of State who spoke on Biotechnology and Biofuels. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the Federal Government's primary training institution for officers and sup-port personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community, preparing American diplomats and other professionals to advance U.S. foreign affairs interests overseas and in Washington.

Kelly Witkowski, Agriculture and Climate Change Officer

IICA Speaks at International Seminar on New Developments in Agrometeorology to Combat Climate Risks

IICA participated in a two day international seminar on New Developments in Agrometerology to Address Climate Risks from July 30th -31st, 2014 in Chillan, Chile. The seminar, organized by INIA Chile and PROCISUR, showcased new technological advances in agrometerology and its applications. Kelly Witkowski gave the inaugural talk at the event, entitled “Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges and opportunities for climate change”. Roberto Flores Verdejo, technical coordinator of IICA’s EUROCLIMA project presented on The multisectoral impact of hydro-meteorological phenomena on rural development: the experience of Costa Rica”, and Fernando Vila of IICA’s office in Uruguay gave a talk on Application of Agrometeorological Information for Crop Insurance.

Event website: http://seminarioagromet2014.inia.cl/?page_id=4

More information: Kelly.witkowski@iica.int

Photo Source: http://seminarioagromet2014.inia.cl/ Photo Source: http://seminarioagromet2014.inia.cl/

Participants at the Seminar Kelly Witkowski, presenting at the Seminar

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

7

Since the signing of NAFTA in 1993, agricultural and agri-food trade and investment flows between Canada, Mexico and the United States has grown, with overall agricultural trade reaching about US$50 billion. The NAFTA partners are one another’s largest agricultural export markets: Canada and Mexico are the two largest agricultural suppliers to the United States, while the United States is the leading agricul-tural provider to both the Canadian and Mexican markets. While agricultural trade increases so does technical collaboration on areas of trilateral interest such as agricultural health. Close collaboration between agricultural scientists of the three countries can assist on inform-ing policies to avoid barriers created by sanitary and phytosanitary measures, to harmonize agricultural classification and to develop grad-ing and marketing standards. The Cooperative Program in Agricultural Research and Technology of the Northern Region - PROCINORTE – is a mechanism for sharing knowledge based on sound agricultural research. PROCINORTE’s vision is that the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States work together, in consensus, through their na-tional agricultural research institutions to solve problems and support agriculture in the North American region with science, improved tech-nology, and scientifically-based policy guidance. PROCINORTE mission is to mutually strengthen governmental collaboration in agricultural research, development, and policies to: 1) en-hance sector productivity and competitiveness; 2) improve food safety and agricultural health, and 3) reach out to other American coun-tries, and regional and global research networks capacity building to other countries in the Hemisphere. Members of PROCINORTE PROCINORTE was founded in 1998 through an agreement between the public agricultural research institutes of the three countries in the Northern Region: Science and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada- (AAFC) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) Also a member is the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) that acts as Executive Secretariat. The regulatory agencies for agricultural health are also collaborators of PROCINORTE: Canadian Food Inspection Agency- CFIA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, APHIS, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria- SENASICA PROCINORTE Objectives Promote dialogue to identify priority research issues common to the three countries and to influence the regional, hemispheric

and global agendas. Facilitate the exchange of experiences, information and training through the building of linkages among public and private coun-

try institutions of the Northern Region and between the major research and technology transfer actors in the region, hemisphere and the world.

Facilitate the collaboration among the countries to solve problems of mutual interest. PROCINORTE carries out the technical collaboration through specialized task forces on comprised of researchers and other specialists. Currently PROCINORTE works in Genetic Resources, Tropical and Sub-Tropical Fruits, Animal Health and Plant Health issues. PROCINORTE accomplishments The main accomplishment of PROCINORTE is the consolidation of networks of scientists and regulators from Canada, Mexico and the United States who share the most recent advances on genetic resources, animal and plant health, and tree fruits. Supported by IICA, these specialists meet once a year to present the result of their joint projects, discuss invasive pests and their control methods, and react to a new animal disease threat that could affect human health and trade. Also, capacity building between the member organizations and nation-al research institutes from other countries in Latin America is a large component. For more information contact: priscila.henriquez@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

8

Researchers, Diagnosticians and Regulators from the US, Canada, and Mexico Discuss Bovine Tuberculosis Control

Strategies with support from PROCINORTE

A mission of PROCINORTE is to facilitate and strengthen communica-tions and collaborations among researchers and regulators in North America, with the ultimate aim to eradicate serious transboundary diseas-es, such as bovine tuberculosis (TB). This requires an intimate linkage of control efforts between the US, Canada, and Mexico where there is an extensive livestock trade. Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine TB has a wide host range, including humans. Prior to mandatory milk pasteurization in many countries, there were up to 25% TB cases in humans, especially in chil-dren. The financial hardship of managing bovine TB includes the costs of test-ing, culling of infected animals, constraints on movement, loss of trade, indemnity payments, maintenance of federal and regional control pro-grams, and research to develop improved control strategies. Longstanding research and regulatory efforts, however, have proven cost effective. In Mexico, the prevalence of bovine TB in beef cattle, particularly in the northern regions, has been dramatically decreased over the past 20 years with most regions considered as ‘modified accredited advanced’ status. The disease is nearly eradicated in the US (estimated herd prevalence 0.0001% in 2011); however, complete eradication is unlikely due to continued importation of cattle from Mexico, spillover from a wildlife reservoir host, and infrequent inter-herd spread of the dis-ease within the US cattle population. In Canada, bovine TB is nearly eradicated with only pockets of infection remaining, primarily associated with wildlife. Given the importance of tri-lateral efforts to share current and emerging bovine TB diagnostic tests, a technical workshop co-sponsored by PROCINORTE was held at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (USDA/NVSL), in Ames, Iowa in early Au-gust. Attendees included policy makers, bovine TB control program staff, researchers, diagnosticians, and laboratory technical staff. The participants discussed ante- and post-mortem tests, molecular epidemiology techniques - including spoligotyping and whole ge-nome sequencing, and risk-based surveillance tools. They placed emphasis on methods to evaluate emerging tests, particularly field applications. Action items coming from this workshop included: The urgent need for production of a new North American tuberculin standard as current stocks are dwindling, The identification of a research project to compare by whole genome sequencing mycobacterial strains used to produce bovine

and avian tuberculins stocks from each of the countries, The sharing and implementation of a USDA-NVSL bioinformatics algorithm in Canadian and Mexican laboratories for whole ge-

nome sequencing analysis of the providing a harmonized approach to epidemiological investigations. It is expected that efforts continue between the research organizations and regulators from the three countries, supported by PROCINORTE, and also include the North American Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAAHLN) groups. For more information contact: priscila.henriquez@iica.int

Attendees from the US, Canada and Mexico at Procinorte’s

Bovine Tuberculosis Meeting in Ames, Iowa August 2014

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

9

PROCINORTE Promotes the Use of New Tools for

Understanding Emerging Pests The first step in managing any insect pest or plant disease threat to agriculture is accurate identification of the pest or pathogen. Sometimes this is easily done using macroscopic morphological characters, but often more detailed information, including molecular diagnostics tests, is needed to distinguish the pests from morphologically similar organisms. If the pests are new invasive species, the tests need to be not only accurate, but also rapid and sensitive so the organisms can be detected in samples that may be taken from bulk commodities or from insect or spore traps. Early detection greatly facilitates management of invasive species, including management on the scale of countries or continents. The Plant Health Task Force of PROCINORTE has been building collaborations among Canada, Mexico and the US for molecular taxonomy of insects beginning with the invasive, destructive pentatomid called the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB). Molecular diagnostics have focused on distinguishing among populations of BMSB, as well as on natural insect enemies of BMSB. However, other organisms are also a serious threat to the regions agriculture and their identification is important before they cause damage. Toward this end, a one day workshop was carried out on August hosted by the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, MD, on how to analyze the data collected from sequencing insect genomes for use in taxonomy. Three scientists from Mexico and one from Canada attended the event and local USDA entomologists run the workshop. As pointed out by Dr. Deb Fravel, ARS’ National Program Leader for Plant Health and Chair of the PROCINORTE Task Force, besides learning about state of the art tools, the scientists are building a network in molecular taxonomy for insect pests of agricul-tural crops within the Northern Region. The event was co-sponsored by IICA through funding allocated to PROCINORTE and aims at improving the technical capacities of scientists and regulators from Canada, Mexico and the United States in critical areas for agricultural trade. For more information contact: priscila.henriquez@iica.int

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

Attendees of the Workshop

10

The XXX Market Information Organization of the Americas (MIOA) Executive Committee Meeting was held in Washington, DC during August 6th—8th, 2014. On August 7th, 2014, IICA’s Manager of Agribusiness and Commercialization, Dr. James French and Consultant, Kristyn Nanlal Khetia joined MIOA’s Executive Committee members to tour the Philadelphia Wholesale Pro-duce Market (PWPM).

During the tour, the group met with Dan Kane, the General Manager of PWPM who is responsible for maintaining and monitoring the daily operation of the Market. Mr. Kane gave an overview of the market to the group and answered many questions. Mr. Kane shared that the PWPM is one-quarter of a mile long and 686,000 square feet and its most significant benefit of operation is the cold-chain protection for fresh fruits and vegetables. This terminal assures freshness, food safety, quality and maximizes shelf life of produce. Temperatures in each merchant’s refrigerated warehouses are adjusted to suit the ideal environment for each commodity stored. He indicated that this market is a conglomeration of vendors selling similar products which makes it easy for buyers to visit one location to fulfill their needs in a compet-itive environment. Mr. Kane shared that the competition lowers prices while provid-ing an incentive for maintaining high quality and PWPM’s 25 merchants compete for sales on a 24-hour basis. PWPM receives and sells hundreds of truckloads of fresh produce on a weekly basis, leading to cumulative annual sales of one billion dollars.

Additionally, the market sells produce grown by a variety of farmers and producers domestically and internationally. Practically any product in season on the continent is available at PWPM. Sev-eral merchants carry organic products as part of their regular product mix. In a 12 month period, 65% of produce are domestic sources while 35% of produce are sourced internationally.

PWPM website: http://www.pwpm.net

Learn about MIOA: http://www.mioa.org

More information: James.French@iica.int / Miguel.garcia@iica.int

Photo credit: Arlyne Alfaro Araya

Attendees of the Tour

Inside the Market

Tour of World's Largest Enclosed Refrigerated Wholesale

Produce Terminal in Philadelphia

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

11

Possible Impact of the U.S. Agricultural Act

of 2014 on the Agricultural Sector in LAC In this bulletin, the major changes in policy instruments of the new US Act are analyzed in detail. In summary, the new Agricultural Act: includes comprehensive economic and environmental risk management mechanisms, gives special and differentiated treatment to strategically important sectors, links the supports for the production and marketing of agricultural products with national food and nutrition assistance programs, addresses emerging issues that are important for the sustainability of U.S. agricultural and rural development. The analysis of policies and their instruments to support US agriculture is a reference to reflect on the need to design similar instruments in LAC countries to afford a sector that faces more risks than other sectors of the economy greater long-term institutional stability and legal security. For further information please contact joaquin.arias@iica.int.

This bulletin, prepared by the Center for Strategic Analysis for Agriculture (CAESPA), entitled: “Possible impact of the U.S. Agricultural Act of 2014 on the agricultural sector in LAC” is available at the electronic address: http://repiica.iica.int/docs/b3336i/b3336i.pdf

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014

Contact Us

IICA Office in the USA

1889 F Street, N.W.,

Suite 360,

Washington, D.C. 20006

Phone: 202-458-3767

Fax: 202-458-6335

Website: www.iica.int/usa

Email: iica.us@iica.int

September 24th-25th, 2014 - Sub-Regional Workshop on Scenario and

Policy Development for the Dry Corridor of Central America - El Salvador

October 6th-10th, 2014 - Annual Board Meeting of FONTAGRO - Medellín, Colombia

October 13th-16th, 2014 - PROCINORTE Annual Meeting of Fruit Task

Force and Field Trip to Orchards, Jalisco, Mexico

October 15th, 2014 - Global Harvest Initiative - 2014 Global Agricultural

Productivity (GAP) Report Release - Des Moines, Iowa, USA

October 15th-17th, 2014 - World Food Prize and 2014 Borlaug Dialogue – The Greatest Challenge in Human History: Can We Sustainably Feed the 9 Billion Who Will Be on Our Planet by the Year 2050 - Des Moines, Iowa, USA

November 19th – 21st, 2014 - The Second International Conference on

Nutrition (ICN2) FAO Headquarters, Rome

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES WITH IICA

Food Safety Specialist Date of posting: September 1st, 2014 Date of expiration: September 30

th, 2014

To view the vacancy announcement click here. Management of Technical Innovation Specialist and Executive Secretary of PROCISUR

Date of posting: September 10th

, 2014 Date of expiration: October 10

th, 2014

To view the vacancy announcement click here. Or visit: http://www.iica.int/Eng/infoinstitucional/Pages/empleo.aspx

IICA Office in the USA Newsletter—July—August 2014