FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean

FAO promotes the first AgTech cooperative venture incubator

14/04/2023

14 April 2023, Santiago, Chile - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has provided funding to eight projects chosen from more than 100 proposals globally through the new Innovation Fund Incubator, a programme that aims to foster the development and implementation of innovative ideas developed by FAO professionals.

One of the selected proposals is the AgTech Cooperatives Academy, which seeks to provide skills and tools for rural youth in Latin America and the Caribbean to create cooperative ventures offering innovative products and services to family farming. The purpose is to promote rural development and foster innovative agri-food systems to achieve better production and a better life for the rural population.

The project is led by the FAO Innovation unit in the region and supported by the technical teams that work in the areas of Cooperatives and Associations, 1000 Digital Villages, FAO Training and Rural Youth.

The AgTech Cooperative Academy was formed based on the observations made in the field and the alliances established during the visit by Eduardo Ramírez, coordinator of 1000 Digital Villages in the region, and Soroush Parsa, FAO Innovation Officer, to the province of Cotopaxi, Ecuador, where the first territorial hub of the 1000 Digital Villages initiative is located.

Through this innovative proposal, FAO aims to reduce the gap in access to agri-food technology facing small-scale producers in Latin America and the Caribbean.