According to a document prepared by the Global Harvest Initiative, made up of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), “the design of policies and greater investment in eight priority areas would enable Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to raise agricultural productivity, meet its own food and nutrition needs, and help meet the burgeoning world demand for food, fiber and fuel.”

According to the IICA press release, “The entities recommend that governments, the international donor community, the private sector and agricultural producers implement actions to tap the region’s competitive advantages, especially the wealth of its natural resources (water, land and biodiversity).”

The eight priority policies are as follows:

• Driving advances in science, research and development in agriculture.
• Improving the transfer of knowledge to producers and modernizing agricultural systems and extension services.
• Promoting and creating legally secure frameworks for attracting infrastructure investment for agro.
• Supporting irrigation, management of water resources and technology.
• Promoting, improving and facilitating regional and global trade.
• Improving farmers’ access to financial services: risk management and availability of credit.
• Strengthening cooperatives and producers’ associations.
• Reducing post-harvest losses.