Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Innovation Productivity

Proposals from 17 countries submitted in response to call from regional platform for innovation in agriculture

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

Nations from Latin America and the Caribbean submitted nearly 100 proposals to the Marketplace platform, calling for innovation in areas such as productivity, natural resource management, institutional modernization and poverty alleviation.

EMBRAPA and IICA launched the Marketplace Platform initiative in March 2011.

Brazil, March 23, 2012 (IICA). Seventeen countries submitted 99 proposals in response to the call issued by the Latin America-Caribbean-Brazil Platform for Innovation in Agriculture (known as Marketplace) for projects intended to improve living conditions for small-scale farmers in the region.

The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) launched the Marketplace Platform initiative in March 2011.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba and Peru submitted the most projects, which focused on:

• Technologies to increase productivity 
• Improved management of natural resources 
• Strengthening policies, institutions, markets and knowledge management, and 
• Technologies to help small-scale farmers and reduce poverty.

IICA and EMBRAPA will study the 99 proposals and select those that are most innovative and will contribute the most to making agriculture competitive and sustainable. A US$500,000 fund has been established to finance the initiatives selected.

The Marketplace platform also receives support from organizations such as the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Marketplace platform is an offshoot of the Africa-Brazil platform, a joint initiative launched in 2010 by EMBRAPA and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

This year, this platform received 140 proposals from 23 African nations, an increase of almost 100% over the 80 proposals submitted in 2010. The initial fund of US$800,000 allocated to finance initiatives has now grown to US$1.2 million.

For more information, contact: 
fernanda.tallarico@iica.int 

Share

Related news​

San José, Costa Rica

July 1, 2025

Carbon markets offer an extraordinary opportunity for sustainable livestock farming in Latin America, and collective action is essential to seize it, say public and private sector experts during seminar at IICA

During the seminar, which featured various presentation and discussion panels, participants explored the nature of carbon markets, financing alternatives for carbon capture projects in livestock farming, and the current regional context. They also shared methodologies and ideas to unlock their full potential through concrete steps.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

– El Director General del Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA), Manuel Otero, expresó su pleno respaldo a las conclusiones de la Conferencia Global de IFAMA, en la que 600 representantes de 40 países señalaron que el sector agropecuario seguirá siendo parte de la solución a los desafíos planetarios si profundiza su apuesta por la ciencia y la tecnología e impulsa una nueva generación de políticas públicas.

Ribeirao Preto, Brasil

July 1, 2025

IICA Director General expresses full support for IFAMA 2025 Global Conference document, which called on the agricultural sector to strengthen its commitment to science and technology to remain part of the solution to global challenges 

IFAMA 2025 concluded with a call to promote policies and strategies that advance technologies to conserve resources, increase productivity, and protect the environment.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Sevilla

July 1, 2025

IICA’s photo exhibition, which pays tribute to rural men and women in the Americas, is on display at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville

The exhibition is composed of 27 photographs taken by photographer Cecilia Duarte (Brazil) and curator Virginia Fabri (Argentina), which tell the stories of peasants, family farmers, medium-sized producers, members of indigenous communities, teachers, students, agents of innovation and technology, and advocates for the empowerment of women and youth from 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins