Page 17 - Agric Info Mag 2018 - 01

San Jose, 15 January 2018 (IICA). On Monday, veterinarian Manuel Otero
was sworn in as Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Coop-
eration on Agriculture (IICA) for the period 2018-2022. The ceremony
took place in San Jose, Costa Rica. In a unanimous decision, the ministers
of agriculture of the Americas elected Otero to the position last October,

during the Nineteenth Regular Meeting of the Inter-American Board of Ag-
riculture, held at IICA Headquarters.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by the President of Costa Rica,
Luis Guillermo Solís; the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization
of American States, Ambassador Néstor Méndez; the Minister of Agricul-
ture and Livestock of Costa Rica, Luis Felipe Arauz; the Secretary of Fam-
ily Farming, Coordination and Territorial Development of the Ministry of

Agroindustry of Argentina, Santiago Hardie; and the Chair of Argentina‘s
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Alfredo De Ángeli, among other senior
officials.

Otero, who succeeds Mexican agronomist Víctor Villalobos in the post, has
a wealth of experience in the fields of science and technology, agricultural
health and trade, institution building and international cooperation.
Manuel Otera, New Director
General of IICA University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina. Dr. Otero served as the

With a strong commitment to Secretariat of Agricul-
area-based development and ture‘s Agricultural
family farming, Otero said he Counselor at the Ar-
would work to ensure the well- gentine Embassy in
being of rural areas and ex- Washington, D.C. and
pressed interest in working with also held the post of
the less developed countries to Vice President of the
help mitigate inequality in the National Agricultural
Americas. Technology Institute
(INTA) in Argentina.
Career profile Dr. Manuel Otero He previously spent 27
has an MSc in agricultural de- years at IICA, taking up his first position with the organization (as Repre-
velopment from the University sentative in Brazil) in 1988. He subsequently held a series of other posts at
of London and an MSc in animal Headquarters (as Adviser to the Director General, Director of Program-
production from the Tropical ming and Evaluation and Director of the Andean Regional Center) before
Agriculture Research and Higher serving as Representative in Uruguay and, once again, in Brazil. He is the
Education Center (CATIE), author of numerous technical documents on international trade, sectoral
whose headquarters are in Costa policies and the modernization of agriculture, including Gestão da água e
Rica; and graduated as a veteri- o futuro da vida no planeta and Uma nova visão sobre a agricultura bra-

nary doctor from the School of sileira, published in 2013.
Veterinary Sciences of the