What is PROCINORTE?

PROCINORTE is the Cooperative Program in Agricultural Research and Technology, a regional mechanism that facilitates cooperative research activities of tri-lateral interest to Canada Mexico and the United States.

PROCINORTE mission is twofold:

• To strengthen collaboration on agricultural issues in areas of tri-lateral interest for Canada, Mexico and the United States contributing to prevent and solve problems related to agricultural trade in the Region.

• To reach out to other American countries, and regional and global research networks.

Members of PROCINORTE

PROCINORTE was founded in 1998 through an agreement between the public agricultural research institutes of the three countries in the Northern Region:

• Science and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada- (AAFC)

• • Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• • Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP)

Also a member is the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) that acts as Executive Secretariat.

PROCINORTE Objectives

• Promote dialogue to identify priority research issues common to the three countries and to influence the regional, hemispheric and global agendas.

• Facilitate the exchange of experiences, information and training through the building of linkages among public and private country institutions of the Northern Region (PROCINORTE) and between the major research and technology transfer actors in the region, hemisphere and the world.

• Facilitate the collaboration among the countries to solve problems of mutual interest.

PROCINORTE carries out the technical collaboration through specialized task forces on topics of priority for the three countries. Each task force is comprised of researchers and other specialists from the member countries.

Currently PROCINORTE works in Genetic Resources, Tropical and Sub-Tropical Fruits, Animal Health and Plant Health issues.