The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, participated in the World Food Prize ceremonies in Des Moines, Iowa, in the United States, where he attended as a guest a conference of experts organized by Corteva Agriscience and spearheaded the launch of the second edition of the book Fighters – Rural Women in the World.
The conference, in which Otero met with the CEO of Corteva Agriscience, Jim Collins, brought together experts from the United States and around the world to discuss topics related to the future of agriculture and the impacts of climate change, including senior company executives, representatives from North American universities and agricultural producer associations.
“It was an extremely rich and productive meeting, with work sessions that brought together 30 leaders of the highest level, related to agriculture, both at the academic level and from organizations of corn producers, pig producers and large North American universities, as well as as the top executives of Corteva Agriscience,” said Otero.
As a result of a growing alliance between Corteva Agriscience and IICA, Collins and Otero presented in Iowa, in parallel with the World Food Prize ceremonies, the second edition of the book Fighters – Rural Women in the World.
Expanded and corrected, the new edition of the publication, a reference and source of permanent consultation on the situation of women in the countryside and strategies to improve their living conditions, includes articles by the co-president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates, and the ministers in charge of Agriculture in Germany and Brazil, Julia Klöckner and Tereza Cristina Corrêa da Costa Dias.
The book, which features photographs by award-winning Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, breaks down data and statistics through unpublished texts and original visions based on professional and personal experiences, and answers why it is urgent to create opportunities to empower rural inhabitants.
As part of his agenda and with the themes of alliances, institutionality, communication and policy incentives addressed in the meeting with the CEO of Corteva, Otero had separate meetings with the former Secretary of Agriculture of the United States and former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, current president of the United States Milk Exporters Council, and with Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation.
In parallel, the Deputy Director General of IICA, Lloyd Day, participated in meetings at Iowa State University. With this reference institution in agricultural matters, IICA maintained an agreement focused on technological innovation linked to seeds, food and veterinary safety.
“The meetings with the main authorities at Iowa State University serve as a way for IICA to act as a bridge to share the valuable knowledge of this prestigious house of studies with the organization’s member countries,” stated Day.
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