There is potential in Mexico for projects for small fishermen: IFAD

Mexico has the potential to work hand in hand with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in the area of fisheries and aquaculture, said Richard Abila, Global Principal Technical Specialist in these areas.

“From what I know about Mexico, the opportunities are quite there. I could point, for example, to aquaculture, it's an area where IFAD has a lot of investment, knowledge and capacity, there's a lot of potential there. We are talking not about large scale, industrial aquaculture, but the one that involves small landowners, as we are doing in Brazil,” Abila told Causa Natura.

“IFAD has a special category of target groups of small shareholders such as artisanal fishermen, fish farmers and, of course, there are a large number in Mexico,” he said.

The Rome-based fund is one of the agencies of the United Nations (UN) that finance agricultural development in various countries.

Abila stressed that the agency's cooperation with any country can start only with the government.

Today, IFAD funds 35 projects around the world, half of them in Africa, another part close to the other half in Asia and Latin America is in Brazil, Nicaragua and, soon, Haiti. Although, there is an 800 million dollar bag for projects that include fishing and aquaculture components; a dozen of them are aimed exclusively at these areas, with an investment of between 200 and 250 million dollars, Abila said.

Cooperation between Mexico and IFAD is among other priorities. This is reflected in IFAD's National Strategic Opportunities Program (Cosop), presented last year, where the objectives speak of rural and indigenous producers, rural productive inclusion and strengthening climate resilience, based on agreements with the Government of Mexico for the period 2020-2025.

IFAD currently has two ongoing projects in Mexico. One related to the Sowing Life program and the other on crops in semiarid areas of the country. A total of 96 million dollars, according to the UN agency's website for this country.

“In general, what we are looking for is a comparative advantage of presence, of being there, perhaps with other allies who are working in this sector (fisheries and aquaculture). So, we say, 'OK, what value IFAD really brings. ' The comparative advantage,” said Abila, who has been a fisheries researcher in Kenya.

Covid-19

Covid-19 shook up United Nations efforts in fisheries and aquaculture.

“Covid impacted at different levels, depending on how countries operate,” said the technician, who highlighted the effects on fishing communities placing their products in the markets, difficulties for the arrival of production inputs in this sector and the lack of availability of food for consumers.

He argued that technologies for accessing markets or reducing cost losses have helped communities to reduce part of the effects.

“Even with technology, fish have to travel physically, to go from one place to another; if, for example, there are no means of travel, then technology can only help to a certain extent,” Abila said.

Climate Change

While we are seeing a way out of the pandemic with the application of vaccines at a global level, the problem of climate change is still present.

“It's a very worrying thing. And global attention is really getting into this, in several areas. In Mexico, extreme weather events have been experienced, I think of the problem of hurricanes, in some countries we see tsunamis, typhoons, but I think that on a small scale we are also experiencing a lot of pattern changes such as falling rain in some areas, droughts, landslides and things like that,” said Abila.

Although IFAD is not a UN agency responsible for emergencies, it supports the recovery of communities after impacts such as those of COVID or climate, while investments in fisheries and aquaculture increasingly take into account climate change, said the Technical Specialist.

This is done through the incorporation of internal mechanisms so that a project can increase the destination of its resources if a climate problem grows; in other cases, climate actions are considered within the same projects.

If a project is about infrastructure, then we talk about infrastructure that is resilient to the climate; and if it talks about aquaculture, they are considered resilient technologies, he exemplified.

“There are ways to do that, looking at technologies that are efficient,” Abila said.