The Ministry of Agriculture of Costa Rica and IICA define a roadmap to implement digital and precision agriculture solutions to benefit small Costa Rican producers

Primera — “We must identify bottlenecks and areas of opportunity in climate information management, considering the challenges and needs of producers.” — Pedro Avendaño, Coordinator of the AGRO-INNOVA Project.

San José, 30 September 2024 (IICA). The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Costa Rica (MAG) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) held the workshop “Climate Information Management for Agricultural Production in Costa Rica: Technological Solutions in Precision Agriculture for Small Agricultural Producers,” to strengthen existing technical cooperation efforts aimed at reducing the digital gap among small producers and improving productivity, resource use, and agricultural sustainability in the country.

The workshop coordinated actions between two projects: AGROINNOVATION 4.0, which seeks to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability through training, research, technology transfer, and precision agriculture techniques, led by the National Agricultural Extension Directorate of Costa Rica; and the AGRO-INNOVA project, funded by the European Union and implemented by IICA, which aims to build capacities, manage knowledge, and promote technological innovations in agroforestry systems adapted to the Central American Dry Corridor, thus contributing to food security, increased productivity, and climate resilience for highly vulnerable households.

These initiatives led to the creation of a roadmap during the workshop, based on progress and lessons learned from pilot projects established since 2019. These projects focus on managing weather stations to measure agroclimatic conditions on farms, linked to profitability, productivity, and resource use, and are being implemented among agricultural producers and technical teams.

"The idea is to use the available technology, scale it, and strengthen the precision agriculture actions of the Ministry, with the goal of increasing productivity, profitability, and maximizing physical spaces for agricultural production. This partnership with IICA is a great opportunity to harness and enhance that potential, organize it, and redirect it," said Fernando Vargas, Technical Vice Minister of MAG.

Segunda — The action plan was developed with the support of 20 technical experts and will enable the Ministry to implement digital solutions for collecting, exchanging, and analyzing real-time data, thus improving decision-making and agricultural productivity.

The action plan, developed with the support of 20 technical experts, will enable the Ministry to implement digital solutions for collecting, exchanging, and analyzing real-time data, thus improving decision-making and agricultural productivity.

Pedro Avendaño, Coordinator of the AGRO-INNOVA Project, emphasized, “We must identify bottlenecks and areas of opportunity in climate information management, considering the challenges and needs of producers, in order to provide digital technology-based solutions that allow them to make precise, data-driven decisions as quickly as possible."

The event featured the participation of technicians and specialists from IICA and the National Agricultural Extension Directorate (DNEA) of MAG.

More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int