Scientist, government officials, and policy makers from all over Latin America met in Chile, at the ECLA (the Economic Commission for Latin America or the CEPAL for the Spanish acronym) as part of the fourth regional seminar on agriculture and climate change: economics and modeling. The event, supported by the French International Cooperation, had a packed agenda to be completed in two days between November 13 and 14. Part of the organizer included FAO Latin America, CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and CATIE.
This year’s seminar concentrated on economic modelling in relation to climate change and agriculture, and EfD-CA Research Fellow Milagro Saborio was there to lecture on “Economics of agricultural adaptation to climate change: where we stand and the challenges ahead”. Her presentation was followed with commentaries by Walter Oyhantçabal from the Agriculture and Livestock Climate Change Unit from Uruguay; Oscar Mello from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; and Luis Rubén Zavaleta, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation from Peru.
“We met to talk about a timely issue, that is, the convergence of agriculture and climate change,” said Saborio with an optimistic tone of voice and added “I think this event was a great opportunity to show the kind of work we are prepared to do at EfD-CA and CATIE to a very interesting audience”. The linkage between agriculture and climate change has only recently started to poke out in the agenda of the climate change negotiations, and it is likely to become a central issue in the near future of the negotiations.
In EfD-CA Milagro’s expertise and research interest focus on international trade, regional economic and structural change in rural Latin America, and adaptation to climate change. She is currently coordinator for CATIE in the CASCADE project; find out more about the project in the EfD web site.