Agri-food systems must be at the center of the regional response to the COVID19 pandemic (FAO)

FAO (The Americas) published a statement on comments made by the organization at the closing seminar of a high-level conference. The pandemic has highlighted the fragility of the agri-food systems of Latin America and the Caribbean but has created a unique opportunity to rebuild and transform them. The Program Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at IFPRI, Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla, warned that, during 2021, there will be more problems in the agricultural sector than during 2020, due to climatic factors and to the accumulated impact of the pandemic: “We must promote social safety nets and re-secure small and medium-sized companies, because a difficult year is coming.”