St. Lucia Works with IICA to boost Regional Agriculture and Reduce Dependence on Food Imports | THE STAR

IICA – Caribbean countries expect that the new administration of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), led by Guyanese agronomist Muhammad Ibrahim, will help reduce their dependence on food imports and strengthen their food security.

The Ministers of Agriculture of Saint Lucia, Lisa Jawahir, and Belize, Rodwell Ferguson, agreed that they are confident IICA will continue and deepen the work it has been carrying out in the Caribbean on issues such as training for small-scale farmers, the incorporation of new technologies and resilience to extreme climate events.

Jawahir and Ferguson attended—together with ministers and senior officials from 30 countries, as well as representatives of international organizations—the inauguration ceremony of Ibrahim as Director General of IICA for the 2026–2030 period, which took place in San José, Costa Rica.

Muhammad Ibrahim succeeds Manuel Otero, who led the organization for two terms and promoted dozens of projects to strengthen Caribbean farmers.

“Saint Lucia is proud to have IICA as a partner. We consider the Institute a key ally in our goal of becoming self-sustaining and self-sufficient, as we seek not only to ensure food security, but also to move forward in substituting the foods that Caribbean countries normally import”, said Jawahir.

The minister from the Eastern Caribbean island state noted that the region is particularly interested in consolidating its relationship with IICA in research projects aimed at strengthening the resilience of agricultural activity, which is vulnerable to weather events that are increasingly extreme and frequent in the Caribbean.

“We are in discussions”, she revealed, “so that the IICA team can come to Saint Lucia to carry out an assessment of our agricultural systems and look for ways to develop smarter, more climate-resilient productive practices. We are very interested in that”.

Attracting youth to agriculture

Jawahir also referred to IICA’s role in the development of digital agriculture, a fundamental tool to attract young people to the activity: “We need cooperation to promote innovative, science-based techniques, in order to ensure that agriculture is more attractive to the next generation. We have much to learn from other countries in the Americas that are, for example, major livestock producers, and IICA is essential to promote the exchange of experiences among nations”.

For his part, the minister of Belize—a Central American country with a coastline on the Caribbean Sea—emphasized that IICA has 34 Member States: “I believe that we must aim for greater integration so that we can work as partners in the production of healthy food and in strengthening food security”.

“We know the new Director General of IICA, Muhammad Ibrahim, very well. He worked in Belize for many years (as IICA’s representative in the country). I am sure he has the ability to bring the entire region together and to drive our development in agriculture and food security. With IICA’s technical cooperation, we will be able to move forward as a region for the benefit of each of our countries”, he stated.

Ferguson said that one of the key issues in which IICA is destined to play a central role is the mobilization of funds for agricultural resilience projects, through different international financial mechanisms for which the hemispheric organization is accredited.

“I have been Minister of Agriculture of Belize for only a month and a half”, he explained, “but I am convinced that food production is key to human development. Therefore, I believe that with the new Director General of IICA we will be able to work on many important issues, such as the adoption of unified standards and regulations that allow us to export our products to different countries. Together we can achieve great objectives”.