At IICA headquarters in Costa Rica, ambassadors from the NextGen Ag Impact Network (NGIN) were in no doubt that agriculture is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
San Jose, 29 June 2022 (IICA) – In Costa Rica, young agricultural leaders from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania took part in a meeting of the Youth Ambassadors Program of the NextGen Ag Impact Network (NGIN) coalition. The activity provided an opportunity for the participants to learn about regenerative agriculture, share their practical experiences, and familiarize themselves with actions aimed at transforming agri-food systems.
The meeting, held at the Headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), brought together 17 people aged between 18 and 29 from NGIN, an international network whose aim is to position regenerative agriculture as a means to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Producing sufficient nutritious food and restoring ecosystems damaged by human activity are two of the key challenges facing the world today. Regenerative agriculture is a way of tackling both issues simultaneously and achieving complementary outcomes.
Participants in the meeting in San Jose took part in a panel discussion on regenerative agriculture with José Zaglul, former president of Earth University; Katy de la Garza, executive director of Costa Rica Por Siempre; Juan José Bolaños, an agribusiness entrepreneur and executive director of Piñalbo; Costa Rican legislator Priscilla Vindas; and Lloyd Day, Deputy Director General of IICA.
Nele Herrmann Valente, President of the NGIN Coalition and Global Head of Engagement with Young Leaders in Agriculture and Food Systems at Bayer Crop Science, stressed the importance of “getting more young people interested in agriculture and making it more attractive for them, because we are living in a world in which increasing quantities of better-quality food are required for a burgeoning population.”
During the panel discussion, the participants learned about international efforts to restore highly degraded soils that can no longer be used for farming, and to edge markets towards more sustainable forms of production, without losing sight of profitability.
“NGIN is highly diverse, we have people from all over the world, and exchanging experiences and talking about the challenges we face allows us to find solutions together. We need to generate cheaper, more accessible solutions. The innovations generated in Fab Labs like the one at IICA can form part of those solutions,” said Ana Carolina Zimmermann, a 27-year-old Brazilian stock raiser and NGIN ambassador.
“We have to raise up new leaders equipped to seize all the opportunities offered by the sector. We want IICA to vibrate with the energy of all the people visiting us. We expect to receive close to 5000 young people in these same rooms where presidents and ministers of agriculture meet, making the Institute a sounding board for a sector that is vital for the planet’s future sustainable development,” remarked Manuel Otero, Director General of IICA.
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