San José, 24 March 2025 (IICA) – Advancing the transformation of the agricultural sector requires integrating artificial intelligence into agri-food education, fostering interinstitutional collaboration to enhance capacities and access to technology, developing educational reforms focused on sustainability and digitalization, and promoting public policies that support equity, food security, and the training of new talent.
These were some of the conclusions from the event “Sowing Talent: Boosting Science and Innovation in Europe and the Americas,” organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) at its headquarters in San José, Costa Rica.
The five-day event brought together more than 50 representatives from academic institutions, research and innovation centers, technical cooperation organizations, and other stakeholders from Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador, Spain, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, among others, to exchange knowledge and experiences on science, innovation, and education in agriculture. The aim was to foster new leadership and the use of emerging technologies.
As one of its outcomes, a total of 40 entities from the Americas and Europe participating in the meeting signed a declaration with IICA, committing to energizing and updating their programs and teaching methods to meet the needs of agri-food sector stakeholders. They also pledged to incorporate new tools, knowledge, and skills that strengthen transformative leadership, thereby promoting a more flexible, adaptive, and inclusive education.
“It is encouraging to see the willingness to collaborate, reflected in a declaration involving 40 institutions paving the way. The challenge is significant because when we think about transforming agri-food systems, progress can only be made with a new generation of leaders—young people and women who understand this technological revolution—along with more and better science and innovation centers, universities, and companies engaging in a form of collective leadership,” said IICA Director General Manuel Otero at the event’s closing.
The “Coronado Declaration” outlines four key commitments:
The first is to strengthen collaboration between institutions by fostering strategic joint action alliances that promote transformative leadership in the agri-food sector. It also seeks to leverage the expertise and commitment of IICA, the Network for Innovation Management in the Agri-Food Sector (INNOVAGRO Network), and the Campus of International Agri-Food Excellence (CEIA3), which includes the universities of Almería, Cádiz, Huelva, and Jaén, led by the University of Córdoba, Spain. These institutions aim to expand the reach of initiatives and consolidate alliances to serve as promoters and drivers of this effort.
“This declaration represents a commitment of us all to implementing changes for the benefit of agriculture—improving education and programs, introducing new methodologies and tools, and ensuring that research leads to innovation. Our university is committed to artificial intelligence, positioning ourselves at the forefront so our students receive the best training. This IICA initiative is extraordinary; we must bring this innovation to every corner of our territories and to all producers, from the smallest to the largest,” said Manuel Torralbo, president of the INNOVAGRO Network and Rector of the University of Córdoba.
The second commitment of the declaration is to promote innovative and sustainable agri-food education by developing educational programs that integrate new tools, knowledge, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, and sustainable practices within an ethical and responsible framework. It also underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches that address current and future challenges in the sector, enabling broad and inclusive training.
The third is to advance transformative leadership, including support for initiatives such as the Leadership School for the Transformation of Agrifood Systems of the Americas (ELTSA), relaunched by IICA, and other programs focused on training new leaders capable of driving the sector’s sustainable development. The active participation of young people, women, and rural communities in the sector’s transformation processes is expected to play a key role.
In this regard, IICA was urged to request that the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), its highest governing body, which will meet from November 3 to 5 in Brazil, acknowledge the necessity and importance of uniting efforts and expertise to establish and implement a hemispheric virtual agri-food campus serving the sector’s educational institutions. This initiative would be inspired by CEIA3, which was founded in 2008 as a consortium of five Andalusian universities with the goal of strengthening research, innovation, and links with the productive sector.
“We must consider a type of virtual campus, perhaps organized by region, recognizing that universities, while maintaining their individuality, could analyze competencies, career paths, and identify leadership in key areas. This will not materialize overnight, but with adequate discussions and thanks to the declaration, the issue is now on paper, and we must determine how to move forward. At IICA, we are committed to providing support, and through our School of Leaders, the Young Talent Program, and other initiatives such as the tropical agriculture chair, we will push forward with full force,” said Otero.
The fourth commitment focuses on fostering regional and international cooperation to establish and strengthen global collaboration networks. These networks will facilitate the sharing of knowledge, best practices, and resources and promote academic and scientific exchange that contributes to innovation and the sustainable development of the agri-food sector.
“We are building a network. Networking helps create synergy, allowing us to pool efforts and positive experiences that other countries have already had with farmers. This will enable us to strengthen our extension work and the training of our agronomists and veterinarians,” said Zully Vera, Rector of the National University of Asunción in Paraguay.
During the event, more than 50 experts addressed topics such as new challenges in training professionals in the agri-food sector; regional collaboration as a strategy for integrating borderless education; progress in Latin America and the Caribbean in virtual education modalities; innovative techniques for identifying and attracting potential students using conversational marketing tools (chatbots, WhatsApp API, AI); the agri-food potential of universities; the development of regional innovation ecosystems; and artificial intelligence applications in sustainable agriculture.
“In the complex global context in which agriculture and agri-food development operate, this kind of gathering is essential. We need to work together because no one can succeed alone anymore. We must enhance the education of new leaders, young professionals we rely on to transform and improve agri-food systems through research and scalable technological development within a framework of sustainability and equity, striving to bridge the gap between large and small producers,” concluded Adriana Mabel Rodríguez, Dean of the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
