Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Innovation

LAC and EU agrifood innovation networks set to receive a boost

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture and the Director General of IICA will inaugurate the international seminar of Red INNOVAGRO, due to take place in Spain from April 23-25.

San Jose, Costa Rica, April 14, 2014 (IICA). The biggest Ibero-American innovation network in the agrifood sector, Red INNOVAGRO, whose Executive Secretariat is operated by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), will bring researchers and companies together in Spain to promote partnerships for innovation in the agrifood area, which are of strategic importance to meet the global challenges faced by agriculture.

The activity in question is the Seminario INNOVAGRO sobre Redes de Innovación en Agroalimentación, in which specialists from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the European Union (EU) will be taking part in the city of Córdoba from April 23-25.

Red INNOVAGRO coordinates international efforts to promote innovation. Its Executive Secretariat is operated by the IICA.

The seminar will be inaugurated by the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos; the General Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) of Spain, Isabel García Tejerina; the Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos; the president of the Red de Gestión de la Innovación en el Sector Agroalimentario (Red INNOVAGRO), Mauricio Lastra; and the rector of the University of Córdoba, José Manuel Roldán, who is also president of the Campus de Excelencia Internacional en Agroalimentación (ceiA3).

The meeting is being organized by Red INNOVAGRO and ceiA3.

Red INNOVAGRO has 72 members, including research institutes, universities, companies, foundations, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, international organizations and regional networks based in 13 LAC countries and Spain, the Netherlands and Israel.

In his keynote address on April 23, Villalobos will focus on the main challenges with regard to global agricultural policies and how they affect innovation. He will also explain the model that IICA uses to provide technical cooperation in agriculture in the Americas and the contributions that the European Union could make to help meet the challenges in the sector.

Leticia Deschamps, Executive Secretary of Red INNOVAGRO, explained that the objective of the international seminar would be to pave the way for international governance in the field of agrifood innovation, facilitating the coordination of efforts on the subject.

“The overarching challenges facing agriculture are beyond the capacities of individual countries and organizations, so cooperation between LAC and the European Union to achieve the objectives involved becomes a matter of strategic importance,” she remarked.

According to Deschamps, who will give a presentation on how Red INNOVAGRO coordinates international efforts to promote innovation, the Americas can play a leading role in the development of the agrifood sector provided that it uses innovation as a strategic tool to increase its productivity, competitiveness, sustainability and equity.

For more information, contact: 
leticia.deschamps@iica.int

 

Share

Related news​

El Director General del IICA, Manuel Otero, reafirmó en la inauguración de Biohélice 2025 el compromiso del Instituto con la bioeconomía como eje estratégico para transformar el agro y revitalizar los territorios rurales. En el acto lo acompañaron la Directora General de CINDE, Marianela Urgellés; el Rector de la UNA, Jorge Herrera; y el presidente de CRBiomed, Álvaro Peralta.

San Jose, Costa Rica

September 3, 2025

Specialists and partners at a meeting spearheaded by IICA view the bioeconomy as essential in positioning Costa Rica and the Americas as leaders in sustainability and production transformation

The bioeconomy specialists were participating in Biohélice 2025, an event organized by Costa Rica’s Universidad Nacional, the CRBiomed association and IICA, which brought together more than 130 participants with an interest in innovation and bioeconomy.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Alagoas, Brasil

September 1, 2025

Eliane Faria de Souza, a fisherwoman from Northeastern Brazil combining old traditions with innovative ideas to protect the environment, is named an IICA Leader of Rurality of the Americas

Eliane works with other women in the region to transform polluting waste substances into organic fertilizer.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

San Jose, Costa Rica

September 1, 2025

Experts highlight digitalization as the key to modernizing rural technical assistance and connecting family farmers to markets

During the event, organized by IICA and RELASER, more than 150 regional stakeholders examined how the digitalization of rural extension services can boost family farming productivity and resilience.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins