Washington, D.C., September 27, 2024. The third edition of Digital Agriculture Week, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), was conducive for the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) to join forces with IICA to highlight the role that young entrepreneurs and leaders are playing in accelerating the digital transformation in the agricultural sector of the region. 

With a high-value program of content and experiences, Digital Agriculture Week was the meeting point and exchange of experiences and future actions, between representatives of governments, academia, the private sector, entrepreneurs and youth leaders around the region, along with specialists from other international organizations such as ECLAC, CAF, among others.

YABT took part in the week’s programming, presenting its experience in the Panel “Youth and Digitalization in Agri-Food Systems”, represented by Edgar Maestre, Program Director, sharing space with specialists, young leaders, and entrepreneurs who presented their perspective and best practices to move towards inclusive, sustainable and transversal digitalization within agri-food systems.

Maestre, in addition to presenting the work carried out by the YABT to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and youth participation, stressed the relevance of alliances and why it is important to invest in youth. He invited youth to be part of the  road to the next Young Americas Forum at the X Summit of the Americas, calling to act now and decisively, as key actors in the development agenda.

“We recognize the transformative potential of AgTechs to make digitalization a tool that allows reducing gaps within agri-food systems, creating resilient and sustainable communities, helping them insert themselves into value chains,” declared Edgar Maestre, at the closing of this note.

 At the same time, Ivonne Rodríguez from BioFun, one of the winners of the InnovAction Challenge 2.0 in the Talent and Innovation Competitions of the Americas Program (TIC Americas), was part of the group of startups from the region selected to attend the complete program at the IICA headquarters in Costa Rica. BioFun presented its pitch to a select panel of representatives of investment funds, international organizations and other interested parties in the region. 

“IICA’s Digital Agriculture Week was an extremely enriching event. One of the greatest lessons that I’ve had is that all ventures, even if they are science and technology, are social ventures because they will always be aimed at improving people’s lives,” said Ivonne Rodriguez of BioFun.

Rodríguez added, “It fills me with pride to know that Latin American youth are being an active part of this improvement, through our innovation with projects such as those supported by YABT, the Inter-American Foundation and the rest of its partners.”

YABT reiterates its commitment to continue weaving strategic associations in favor of youth, mobilizing the support of the public and private sector, necessary to ensure that youth ventures and initiatives have a solid and diverse ecosystem, and with participation mechanisms in decision-making processes.

Recordings of the complete program of Digital Agriculture Week 2024 are available HERE 

For more information, please contact Mónica Rivera, via monica.rivera@yabt.net