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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

Erick Boy

researcher spotlight

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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Valeria Piñeiro

Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

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Valeria Piñeiro is the Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Senior Research Coordinator in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. Her recent work includes modeling the impacts of agricultural support policies on emissions from agriculture and reviewing the evidence on incentives for the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and their outcomes. Her work in the LAC region includes development strategies and economic growth, trade policies, effects of economic downturn, migration, and tax policies to reduce obesity. She has significant experience working in the areas of economic development and growth using computable general equilibrium (CGE) models as an analytical tool and has led courses in many countries teaching the theory and application of CGE models for the last several years. Dr. Piñeiro received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Maryland.

Her recent work includes:

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Publications

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Book Chapter

Regional developments: Latin America and the Caribbean [in 2025 GFPR]

2025Piñeiro, Valeria; McNamara, Brian; Segura, Joaquín Arias; Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio
Details

Regional developments: Latin America and the Caribbean [in 2025 GFPR]

Over the past five decades, Latin America and the Caribbean has experienced significant changes in its food systems, while also facing both long-standing and new challenges. The region plays a key role in global food security and nutrition, as well as in stabilizing the global climate and conserving biodiversity. Moving forward, the region must overcome the hurdles created by economic and political instability, climate change, and deep-rooted structural inequalities. This chapter draws on research by IFPRI and partners to outline the evolving food systems landscape and present policy options and research priorities for the years ahead. Book link: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174108

Year published

2025

Authors

Piñeiro, Valeria; McNamara, Brian; Segura, Joaquín Arias; Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio

Citation

Piñeiro, Valeria; McNamara, Brian; Segura, Joaquín Arias; and Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio. 2025. Regional developments: Latin America and the Caribbean. In Global food policy report 2025: Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world, eds. Johan Swinnen and Christopher Barrett. Part Six: Regional Developments and Priorities, Chapter 23, Pp. 541-554. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174360

Keywords

Latin America; Food Systems; Food Policies; Healthy Diets; Sustainable Agriculture; Sustainability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Book Chapter

Agrifood trade: Changing challenges, changing perspectives on policy and policy research

2025Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Gautam, Madhur; Glauber, Joseph W.; Martin, Will; Piñeiro, Valeria; Robinson, Sherman; Traoré, Fousseini; Vos, Rob
Details

Agrifood trade: Changing challenges, changing perspectives on policy and policy research

Agrifood trade plays a key role in ensuring food security, providing smallholders and rural traders with better prices for their products in bigger and higher-value markets, improving efficiency in the production and use of natural resources, and increasing consumer access to safer and more diversified and nutritious foods. This chapter reviews the evolution of trade research, with a focus on the contributions made by IFPRI and others, as well as priorities for future research. Book link: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174108

Year published

2025

Authors

Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Gautam, Madhur; Glauber, Joseph W.; Martin, Will; Piñeiro, Valeria; Robinson, Sherman; Traoré, Fousseini; Vos, Rob

Citation

Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Gautam, Madhur; Glauber, Joseph W.; Martin, Will; Piñeiro, Valeria; et al. 2025. Agrifood trade: Changing challenges, changing perspectives on policy and policy research. In Global food policy report 2025: Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world, eds. Johan Swinnen and Christopher Barrett. Part Five: Effecting Change, Chapter 16, Pp. 389-412. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174350

Keywords

Agricultural Trade; Trade; Agricultural Policies; Research; Trade Barriers; World Markets; Food Standards

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Working Paper

Understanding the gender gap in the Colombian agricultural sector

2025Rueda-Gallardo, Jorge; Mateus, Daniel Vergara; Piñeiro, Valeria; Escalante, Luis Enrique
Details

Understanding the gender gap in the Colombian agricultural sector

We live in a complex world facing uncertainties, crises-including conflict and extreme weather- and a global economic slowdown. These challenges highlight the importance of understanding the agricultural sector’s contributions to the economy and designing effective policies to support its resilience and growth. Within this context, examining the gender gap in the Colombian agricultural sector takes on even greater relevance. The sector plays a crucial role in the country’s economy, contributing 6.4% of the total value-added in 2019 and providing 82.1% of agricultural employment in rural areas. However, a significant gender gap exists, with women facing disadvantages in terms of participation, wages, and income generation. Women’s participation in the agricultural workforce is significantly lower than men’s. In 2019, only 6.1% of employed women worked in agriculture, compared to 21.6% of men, creating a gap of 15.4 percentage points. This disparity is the largest among all the economic sectors analyzed. This lower participation translates into an unequal distribution of labor income. While the agricultural sector accounts for 11.3% of the total labor income for men, it contributes only 2.6% for women. Women in agriculture also earn considerably less than men. The average salary for women in the sector was USD 117.4, while men earned USD 168.7, a 43.7% difference. These disparities are persistent across different areas and qualification levels. To promote a more equitable and resilient agricultural sector, it is essential to understand and address the underlying causes of this gender gap. This paper aims to comprehensively analyze the gender gap in Colombian agriculture by examining its various dimensions and identifying potential solutions. By highlighting the disparities in participation, wages, and income generation across different areas and qualification levels, this paper aims to inform the design of policies and interventions that promote gender equality, empower women in agriculture, and enhance the sector’s overall contribution to the country’s social and economic development.

Year published

2025

Authors

Rueda-Gallardo, Jorge; Mateus, Daniel Vergara; Piñeiro, Valeria; Escalante, Luis Enrique

Citation

Rueda-Gallardo, Jorge; Mateus, Daniel Vergara; Piñeiro, Valeria; and Escalante, Luis Enrique. 2025. Understanding the gender gap in the Colombian agricultural sector. LAC Working Paper 34. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174402

Country/Region

Colombia

Keywords

Americas; South America; Agricultural Sector; Gender; Employment; Policies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Events

Advancing Sustainable Agri-food Systems for Climate Resilience, Food Security, and Global Collaboration
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

November 12, 2024, 5:00 – 6:30 pm

Advancing Sustainable Agri-food Systems for Climate Resilience, Food Security, and Global Collaboration

The livestream will be available on Tuesday November 12, 2024 at 5:00 – 6:30 pm (America/Sao_Paulo) / 3:00 – 4:30 pm (US/Eastern). Join us for an in-depth discussion on Avanzar2030, an evidence-based initiative that identifies promising innovations in agri-food systems and estimates the costs of implementing them. Launched in response to the 2021 UN Food […]

World Food Prize 2024 Borlaug International Dialogue: Side Event on
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

October 22, 2024, 8:30 – 10:00 am

World Food Prize 2024 Borlaug International Dialogue: Side Event on “Reducing the Impact of GHGs Through Managing Food Loss and Waste (FLW): Insights from Bangladesh, Guatemala, Malawi, and Nepal”

October 22, 2024 8:30 – 10:00 am (CDT) 9:30 – 11:00 am (EDT) Register IFPRI is participating in the 2024 Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue. This year’s theme, “Seeds of Opportunity: Bridging Generations and Cultivating Diplomacy”, will emphasizes the vital role of integrating past wisdom, current innovations and the pressing needs of tomorrow, by leveraging […]

Navigating the Trade Landscape: A Latin American Perspective building on the WTO 13th Ministerial Conference
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

September 10, 2024, 1:30 – 2:30 pm

Navigating the Trade Landscape: A Latin American Perspective building on the WTO 13th Ministerial Conference

The governance of agricultural and food trade is facing unprecedented challenges in a rapidly evolving global landscape. As traditional agricultural trade issues, such as domestic support and market access, seem to lose their prominence and the feasibility of advancing with a multilateral strategy diminishes, the focus is shifting toward the environmental and nutritional dimensions of […]

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News

July 28, 2023 | Press Release

Within the framework of the WTO, IFPRI, and IICA launch Latin American Network of Agrifood Trade Negotiators

San Jose. The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) launched a network of agricultural negotiators in Latin America, which will seek to strengthen the positioning of those countries in multilateral forums that address matters related to the agrifood sector, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). It […]

February 19, 2023 | In the News

Russia and China have a stranglehold on the world’s food security (Bloomberg) 

In an extensive report, Bloomberg discusses how Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the role of fertilizers — and who controls them — as a strategic lever of global influence. The geopolitical fallout is being felt in the Middle East, by countries such as Malawi and Mozambique in Africa that are dependent on fertilizer imports from […]

February 10, 2023 | In the News

Top food exporter Argentina confronts rising hunger and poverty (The New Humanitarian) 

The New Humanitarian interviewed Valeria Piñeiro, IFPRI’s acting head for Latin America, for the article about the worsening situation with hunger and poverty in Argentina. Piñeiro is asking the international community not to neglect Argentina and Latin America. In the decade up to 2015, the region was hailed for outperforming others in reducing hunger and poverty, but […]

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