FAO convenes Latin American and Caribbean countries to define agrifood priorities

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will open the 39th FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean (LARC39), to be held in Brasília, Brazil, from 2 to 6 March.

The central objective of the event will be to define FAO’s work priorities for the next two years in Latin America and the Caribbean.

LARC39 will begin on 2 March with the Senior Officers Meeting (SOM), a technical session that will bring together Member State delegations to examine strategic challenges and define key orientations for the region.

At the SOM, key discussion areas will include food price inflation and its effects on food security and nutrition. Participants will review the drivers of rising prices, their impact on access to healthy diets, and the policies adopted by countries to mitigate these effects and advance towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger.

The agenda will also address the One Health approach, highlighting the need to strengthen governance, surveillance and biosecurity in response to threats affecting the health of animals, plants and people simultaneously.

Another focus will be the sustainable management of water and soils, strategic resources for regional and global food security. The session will analyse challenges related to climate change, unsustainable practices and gaps in policy implementation, alongside FAO’s integrated approach to promoting efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems. Strategies to strengthen the resilience of agrifood systems to multiple risks in a context of increasing climate variability will also be examined.

On the programmatic side, FAO will present the results achieved in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 2024–2025 biennium, highlighting progress in sustainability, agricultural innovation, healthy diets, climate resilience and rural development, as well as partnerships and initiatives contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Following the SOM, the ministerial segment will take place from 4 to 6 March and will be inaugurated by high-level authorities of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu.

Within the ministerial segment, high-level sessions will be held to facilitate the exchange of experiences among countries and the joint analysis of challenges, progress and lessons learned related to policies for eradicating hunger and poverty, reducing inequalities, and expanding financing and investment in agriculture and food systems.

Ministerial roundtables will address key drivers and strategies to advance agrifood systems transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean; pathways to reduce productivity gaps through science, innovation and investment for efficient, inclusive, sustainable and resilient agricultural growth; and public policy pathways for sustainable agricultural and forest management aimed at climate-resilient development.

The outcomes of these discussions will contribute to defining regional orientations and priorities that will guide the joint work of FAO and its Member States during the next biennium.