The Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region is home to a third of the world’s fresh water resources – more than any developing region per capita – and more than a quarter of the world’s medium to high potential farmland. The region is already the largest net food exporter in the world, yet it has only achieved a small fraction of its potential agricultural production.

In addition to its abundant natural resources, the region houses a large number of farmers with extensive experience and a capacity to innovate, as well as strong institutions and markets.

The essential building blocks for massive and sustainable agricultural growth are already in place.

To  enhance the productivity and environmentally sustainability of agriculture in LAC, the region’s governments and their multilateral partners must put agriculture at the very center of the development agenda. Priorities should include agricultural research, extension, infrastructure, trade and innovation.

The next 10 to 20 years offer a critical window of opportunity to advance new forms of productive and environmentally sustainable agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean, which can help ensure global food security by 2050.

The Inter-American Development Bank’s AgroLAC 2025 multi-donor funding platform brings together diverse organizations to support stable, long-term regional and global food supply through sustainable agricultural practices. This fund will finance technical cooperation projects including pilot demonstrations and technical assistance, as well as studies and dialogue focused on:

• Improving the productivity of small, medium and large producers
• Increasing producers’ access to national and international markets
• Strengthening producer associations
• Promoting public/private sector solutions
• Facilitating access to financial services
• Advancing the adoption of climate resilient crops and practices

Specifically, this platform aims to promote projects related to food and value-added commodity crops, livestock ranching, fisheries, agroforestry, and related institutional capacity and governance. It will encourage the identification of local solutions to close productivity yield gaps that can be taken to scale.

Enhancing Climate-Smart and Forest-Friendly Practices and Technology in LAC

The overall objective of the “Enhancing climate smart and forest-friendly practices and technology in LAC” project is to support the public and private sectors in reducing deforestation while strengthening low-carbon agriculture. This will be accomplished by implementing climate-smart and environmentally sustainable agricultural policies and/or practices in Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina.

The three specific objectives of this project are: (i) to scale up the Green Growth Compact methodology through knowledge, capacity building, and dissemination tools and platforms; (ii) to support policy change and an enabling regulatory environment at state, subnational and national levels to promote landscape conservation activities while fostering public and private dialogue; and (iii) to improve producers’ capacity to implement climate-smart and environmentally sustainable practices and technologies.

Approved projects in 2017:

During the year 2017 projects worth of USD 2.9 Million were approved in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Suriname.

RG-T2942 : The overall objective of this Technical Cooperation is to support public and private sectors to reduce deforestation while strengthening low carbon agriculture by implementing climate smart and environmentally sustainable agriculture policies or practices in Colombia (Meta and/or Caquetá), Brazil (Para), and Argentina (Salta/Jujuy).

PR-T1203 : The purpose of this Technical Cooperation (TC) is to support the Government of Paraguay in the development of technical, operational and institutional studies for the design, preparation, approval and start of the Animal Health and Productive Diversification Program (PR-L1148).

AR-T1194 : The objective of this Technical Cooperation (TC) is to identify tools and investments needed for the design and implementation of a master plan for the consolidation of organizational capabilities for research, extension and innovation at INTA.

SU-T1101 : To provide support to the Government of Suriname and the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (LVV) in the preparation of technical economical, institutional and environmental studies required for the loan processing and approval SU-L1052; and for developing the LVV Agricultural Strategic Plan.

BR-T1370 : The objective of the TC is to strengthen the capacities of the animal and plant health and food safety services in Brazil in order to improve access to export markets and the quality of food consumed in the country. For this, technical, operational and institutional studies will be needed, which requires national and international consultancies that provide experience and technical knowledge. These studies will be the basis for a solid technical dialogue with government authorities and other relevant stakeholders about the weaknesses and challenges faced by the animal and plant health and food safety services, the risks and negative effects on the competitiveness of the Brazilian agricultural sector, and the priority investments and other interventions.

CO-T1463 : The objective of this project is to foster livestock reconversion processes through Intensive Silvopastoral Systems (SSPi) and conservation areas, as well as high-quality dairy products with better marketing and marketing capabilities of the brand with Caqueta's designation of origin, impacting in a positive way the economic conditions of the producers.