The health, economic and social crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic also offers opportunities for rebuilding and transformation that will strengthen resilience and reduce or prevent future crises. Transformative actions will need to take into account the central role and importance of ensuring prosperous and inclusive AFSs and rural territories, given that they represent an important source of income, employment and food for the region and the world. LAC’s rural territories produce food for more than 800 million people; cultivate 14 % of the world’s crops; are home to a large part of the planet’s biodiversity, freshwater and natural forests; produce half of the energy in the region and provide the ecosystem services on which cities depend.

In this report 2021-2022, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) highlight the central role of agri-food systems and actions for rural and agricultural transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean in the post-pandemic recovery scenario of COVID-19.