Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

Latin America benefits from vast access to natural resources, however many people living in rural areas have limited access to locally produced food and rely heavily on imported goods. The fragilities in food supply chains were exacerbated by COVID-19, which left people at risk of not being able to meet their immediate food needs. Recovery and renewal provides an opportunity to support Latin Americas rural agricultural sector to renew its practices, promote community health and resilience, and contribute to achieving environmental sustainability. Consider the actions proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for COVID-19 recovery and renewal:

Transform food production

• Finance and support the production of a diverse range of agricultural products. Invest in multi-crop programs together with small and medium producers
• Reduce food waste by providing access to locally produced food and resources
• Prioritise local consumption and distribution of agricultural products over exports
• Promote the adoption of healthy diets with local produce through voluntary information groups, labelling policies, eating healthy campaigns, and fiscal incentives to schools that purchase local produce

Rural development

• Provide quality education and skills-training to the rural agricultural sector
• Establish sustainable practices in the agricultural sector, that recognize the diversity of the ecosystem and the cultural and traditional practices or its habitants
• Increase the infrastructure for public services and connect with urban areas. This can help to reduce rural vulnerability and enables producers to access urban markets for their products

Sustainable agriculture

• Promote water conservation and soil maintenance practices
• Protect the ecosystem by delimiting conservation areas outside of agricultural practices
• Implement early warning systems and risk reduction programmes focused on local hazards