Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture [IICA] to work with CFAES’ Carbon Management and Sequestration Center

Dec. 8, 2020
Dean Cathann Kress speaks, with Prof. Lal in center of international panel

IICA has for over 75 years sought to "encourage, promote and support the efforts of the Member States [stretching from Canada to Argentina] to achieve their agricultural development and rural welfare by means of international technical cooperation of excellence."  Objectives include:

1.To approach for monitoring, managing and sequestrating soil organic carbon (SOC)

2. To serve as a bridge between science, policy and development work on soil health restoration in the Americas, building capacity and using resourcesmart approaches to achieve multiple development goals:

a) Technological innovation in agriculture,

b) Food and nutrition security,

c) Agriculture, climate change and natural resource management,

d) Productivity and competitiveness of the agri-food sector,

e) Territorial development and rural well-being,

f) Animal and plant health,

g) Youth and Women.

Director of the C-MASC Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science, and World Food Prize Laureate for 2020, was featured at the launch of the initiative “Living Soils in the Americas” on December 4. Vice President for Agricultural Administration, Dean Cathann Kress also spoke. This can be viewed in English at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8K1KL8IeP0 and in Spanish [the language of the majority of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s 34 member states] at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViCo5h70IPY&feature=youtu.be or in Portuguese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViCo5h70IPY&feature=youtu.be

By Jason Owens