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Digital technologies – smartphones, big data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, precision agriculture – are helping farmers boost agricultural productivity, profitability and competitiveness through more informed decision-making.

At the request of the IDB, the Investment Centre, in collaboration with the FAO country office, assessed the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Uruguay’s agriculture sector.

Uruguay is one of the most advanced countries in Latin America in terms of ICTs, and boasts a favourable legal and institutional environment for digital innovation and adoption. The use of mobile phones and Internet is particularly high.

But while the country’s larger-scale farmers are using digital technologies systematically to improve productivity, Uruguay’s smaller family farmers have been slow to fully embrace digital agriculture. Reasons include limited digital education, especially among older farmers, farm size and insufficient knowledge of technological solutions and access to specialized technical assistance, among others.

Following the assessment, FAO proposed concrete actions for incorporating ICTs into agricultural systems, extension, technical assistance and training to reach more family farmers. This includes providing incentives for the development and adoption of ICTs in order to accelerate innovation processes in different agricultural value chains, as well as setting up a training programme on ICT use.

FAO also recommends greater dialogue and collaboration between producer organizations and ICT providers so that digital solutions respond to farmers’ needs.

FAO’s technical assessment allowed Uruguay’s Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fishery to allocate a subcomponent of an IDB-funded rural development programme to promote investments in digital agriculture.

The IDB is keen to continue this line of work with FAO in Honduras. There, the team is facilitating supply and demand by identifying national and international service providers and bringing them to the table with agricultural institutions and other private sector actors to discuss investment opportunities for digital agriculture. In doing so, they are looking at the social, economic, environmental and institutional impact different ICTs would have on Honduras’ agriculture sector.