Officials, experts and academics from 12 countries are attending the Forum, which Colombia is hosting for the first time. It will seek to develop concrete proposals on how to successfully tackle the challenges of rural development, with a territorial focus, and also to expand knowledge networks in Latin America.

Based in Arizona, USA, Garden Pool is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to research and the development of educational strategies related to sustainable food production methods. Its CEO, Dennis McClung, is the first Goodwill Ambassador to be appointed under IICA’s new program.

Today, the technological company and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture formalized a strategic relationship to facilitate the implementation of the Internet of Things, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the agriculture sector of the Americas.

This comes in the form of a report prepared for the recently created Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), to which IICA was a co-contributor.

During the meeting, which was held at the request of the head of the Institute, Manuel Otero, the officials explored areas in which it would be possible to increase cooperation between IICA, the government of the United States of America and its specialized agencies, as well as between the hemispheric agency and the U.S. private sector.

The course will be delivered in a face to face format in Geneva, Switzerland, and will be attended by 25 specialists in the area.  The training will take place over the next three weeks.