Washington D.C., 21 April 2026 (IICA) – Diego Arias, the World Bank’s Practice Manager of Agriculture and Food for Latin America and the Caribbean explained that AgriConnect was conceived after a group of experts, who were convened by the multilateral financial agency, identified agriculture and agribusiness as one of the five sectors at the global level with the greatest potential to absorb the number of youth entering the labor market.
Arias provided details on the World Bank Group-led project that aims to expand rural connectivity, digital inclusion, and the integration of family farmers into markets. The Latin American and Caribbean chapter of this global initiative was launched recently in Washington, with the support of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), whose Director General, Muhammad Ibrahim, was also in attendance.
“We realized that the rural sphere is one of the sectors that should receive more government and private sector investment to generate more and better jobs. The other four sectors identified were tourism, health, renewable energy and infrastructure,” said Arias, who explained that AgriConnect is sustained by a network of World Bank partners, including IICA and financial organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as well as the UN agencies FAO and IFAD.
“The idea is to support family farmers to facilitate their access to markets, thus enabling them to boost their income and generate better employment throughout the value chain. It is a commitment that we share with IICA, other institutions, and governments, with which we have been working for several decades to drive agrifood development. We are seeking to prioritize investments in the sector to impact employment,” he noted.
Funding and market access tools
Arias specified that there are 500 million family farmers in the world and by the year 2030 AgriConnect is aiming to reach 300 million of that number, offering them financing and market access tools.
Furthermore, he revealed that, “The World Bank Group is working to unblock private financing to the sector, for sample, by providing new types of insurance. However, there are also funding sources that didn’t exist before, such as what is known as climate financing. This provides cheaper resources in the form of loans or donations that support farmers or agribusinesses that have a positive impact on the environment. The combination of inclusion, risk management, and better financing makes this an extremely innovative initiative.”
Arias also indicated that the World Bank Group had noted a keen interest in the initiative by Latin American and Caribbean governments.
“AgriConnect is not only sustained by public investment but also promotes private investment. One of the first countries in the region to come on board was Brazil, which has been focusing on bioinput development. Other countries are attempting to take this route, such as Ecuador and Bolivia, or Caribbean countries, like Jamaica, where this has become a fundamental issue given problems with the supply of fertilizers.”
AgriConnect aims to spur the transformation of family farming into a commercially viable and resilient sector. By connecting farmers to markets, financing, technology, and expertise, the initiative will boost productivity, income, and job creation, throughout the value chain. As such, subsistence farming will give way to farming at scale, thus converting agriculture into a driving force for more and better employment, innovation, and private sector growth.
Arias admitted that, “It is an immense challenge, given that there are 16 million family farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Reaching most of them will require all partners and governments to devise a joint action plan, which is something that we are promoting. The business of agriculture is one of the most powerful ways of reducing poverty, generating more and better employment, and spurring sustainable growth.”
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
