IICA and Syngenta Turn to Science to Solve Agriculture's Problems

The InterAmerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and Syngenta, which work together to ensure food production and improve living conditions in rural areas, are looking for new ways to collaborate in order to broaden the impact of their efforts across the hemisphere.

After two years of fruitful and long-term collaboration in support of agricultural well-being, the relationship between the IICA and Syngenta has yielded significant achievements in the transfer of knowledge about semillas, pest and disease control, technical training, and the transformation of agricultural systems, primarily in Central America, and they are now attempting to bring these and other benefits to the rest of the world.

"This alliance has the potential to be transformative, arming a portfolio of projects in the areas of living systems, digital agriculture, co-operativism, and many others, in which I am confident there is a community of ideas with Syngenta." "At the IICA, we are looking for partnerships that will have an impact on the quality of life of our farmers," said Manuel Otero, the organization's Director-General.

"The IICA is a non-profit organization that promotes coordinated action." Cooperation in these new times is absolutely necessary for laying the groundwork for new agriculture," he added.

"There is a significant opportunity to use our collaboration with the IICA to capture all of the knowledge that is being generated and will be generated in order to incorporate it into the projects that we have in collaboration with our partners," said Roberto Vega, Syngenta's Global Cadena of Value Manager.

Living Soils

As part of the IICA's and Syngenta's efforts to promote more sustainable agriculture, the company joined the initiative “Living Soils of the Americas” which the Institute is advancing in collaboration with the Ohio State University's Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration (C-MASC), which is led by world food prize winner Dr. Rattan Lal. Companies such as Bayer and PepsiCo are also supporting the initiative from the private sector.

“Living Soils of the Americas” is a programme that aims to bridge the gap between science and public policy in order to restore and protect the oceans in the Americas, whose depletion jeopardizes Latin America and the Caribbean's (ALC) position as a global food security guarantee.

The initiative is intended to improve rural well-being, productivity, and food security while respecting environmental limits and making rational use of natural resources.

"Responses are not only found in governments, research institutes, or the private sector; they are found in the collective work of all." One of the areas in which we have worked is on live crops, and we are collaborating with Syngenta on this because we know they have solutions to offer to our farmers and agriculture ministers that are science-based," said Lloyd Day, Sub Director-General of the IICA.

The alliance is constantly exploring new areas of opportunity in order to promote and deepen efforts in the pursuit of sustainable agriculture in the Americas, which benefits farmers, society as a whole, and nature today and in the future.

(Source: IICA)