The crisis triggered by covid-19 and the impact of the war in Ukraine could make the situation in the Latin American agricultural sector more complex, increasing hunger in the region, authorities warned at a meeting of Ibero-American Agriculture Ministers in Santo Domingo. .
Speaking at the XI Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Agriculture, the Ibero-American Secretary General, Andrés Allamand, said that the situation in Latin America “is already very complex” because it concentrates 29% of deaths from covid and, in addition, it was the region where food insecurity increased the most due to the pandemic.
The Chilean diplomat cited data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicating that hunger in the region reached its highest levels since 2020.
This, added Allamad, despite the fact that Latin America produces food to supply “twice its population” but it is also, according to the FAO, the area of the world where more food is lost in the production process and final marketing.
The situation “cannot leave us indifferent, but above all it cannot leave us inert. No authority that works on these issues should be able to sleep peacefully knowing that there are people who are hungry in our region,” he stressed.
“Food security must be a priority,” he said at the meeting, which was also attended by Dominican President Luis Abinader, whose country currently holds the pro tempore presidency of the Ibero-American Conference.
Abinader referred to the “difficult” moment that agriculture is going through, due to the consequences of the pandemic, the disruptions in the commercial exchange of food goods and the war between Russia and Ukraine “which has shot up the prices of fertilizers to exorbitant levels and energy, essential inputs for agricultural production”.
These factors, he said, “make up a complex picture that puts the food security of our peoples at risk.”
In this sense, he proposed the creation of a permanent consultation mechanism that allows identifying the presence of technical barriers that hinder the trade of agricultural goods between countries.
Likewise, advocating before international financial organizations for the channeling of resources to the sector under different conditions from those of other sectors in terms of rates and terms, as well as the creation of a fertilizer price stabilization fund so that the States can resort to said fund to avoid transferring it to the farmer. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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