Uruguayan-German Dialogue on Agriculture

As part of a holistic approach, the project promotes synergies in research, dissemination and application of agroecological, sustainable and climate-resilient production systems.

Together with the Uruguayan Ministry of Agriculture, the Uruguayan national agricultural research institute INIA and German and regional cooperation partners, the expert dialogue implements activities with the help of three complementary components. The provision of practical results and advisory tools is important and a tangible result of this interaction between the components and their stakeholders. The dialogues between Germany and Uruguay and within Latin America that take place as part of the project are characterized by a respectful exchange that creates valuable synergies.

One component of the dialogue is applied scientific soil microbiome research to improve soil health, in which the German Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) and the INIA work closely together (Component 1).

Components 2 and 3 focus on the following topics:

• The integration of a model for calculating soil carbon fixation into the existing Uruguayan guidelines for sustainable land use planning
• A contribution to political, strategic and scientific work with bio-inputs
• Strengthening agricultural agroecological and gender-oriented advisory formats
• Linking science and public policy

Due to its prominent position in the Mercosur region, Uruguay is an ideal location for regional and supra-regional networking, cooperation and coordination. Accordingly, the project works together with supra-regional institutional formats such as PROCISUR (Cooperation Program for the Technological Development of the Agricultural and Food Sector in Southern South America) and IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture) as well as other research and specialist networks on innovative and sustainable agricultural products.

The project is also responsible for the regional coordination of the BMLEH's Bilateral Cooperation Program (BKP) projects in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. The expert dialogue thus makes a concrete contribution to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular Goal 2 (End hunger), Goal 6 (Sustainable water management), Goal 12 (Sustainable consumption and production patterns), Goal 13 (Climate action) and Goal 15 (Protect terrestrial ecosystems).

IAK Agrar Consulting GmbH is the lead partner in the consortium with GOPA AFC GmbH.