The Honorable Noel Holder, Agriculture Minister of Guyana arrived in Costa Rica on April 11 as part of a visit to discuss Agricultural priorities among the two countries. Among the discussions held, the main topic will be the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s (IICA) Country Strategy 2014-2018.

The Agriculture Minister is accompanied by Chief Executive Officer, Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) Mr. Nigel Cumberbatch and General Manager of the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) Ms. Ida Sealey-Adams, was invited by the Director General of IICA Mr. Victor M. Villalobos.

Among the areas for discussion are the systematic, participatory, and organized approach to dealing with agriculture in the region; support for the construction of medium and long term visions, enabling each country to achieve its development goals and to look at the international vision for dealing with global phenomena related to agriculture and rural life.

The objective of the visit is to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector, strengthen agriculture’s contribution to the development of territories and well-being of the rural population and improve agricultural capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

As the specialized agency of the Inter-American System for agriculture, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) supports the efforts of the Member States to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being.

The mission of IICA is to encourage, promote and support our Member States in their efforts to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical cooperation of excellence. The vision of IICA is to create a competitive, inclusive and sustainable inter-American agriculture that feeds the hemisphere and the world, while at the same time generating opportunities to reduce hunger and poverty among farmers and rural dwellers.

The headquarters office of IICA is in Costa Rica, specifically in San Isidro de Coronado, in the heart of the Central Valley’s dairy land. The IICA has a presence in every nation of the Americas in addition to a permanent seat in Europe.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Co-operative Republic of Guyana.