Author: Tomaso Ceccarelli

Publish date: 02 October 2025

The just-concluded Semana de la Agricultura Digital (Digital Agriculture Week) hosted by IICA (Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura) and partners in San José, Costa Rica, offered a useful “compass” for where the region’s agri-digital journey is heading. Now in its fourth edition, the “Semana” keeps growing in scale and substance, drawing together the people who drive the agricultural digital innovation ecosystem across the Americas, including public agencies, researchers, farmer organizations, agtech founders, investors, and development partners. It has become an effective occasion for knowledge and experience exchange, as well as for fostering connections among key actors in the region’s ecosystem.  

The program offered a blend of keynote presentations, showcases of digital solutions, and case studies from both the public and private sectors (mostly represented by agtechs selected through the event's competition), as well as panels and breakout discussions on specific topics, networking activities, and parallel events (namely the meeting of national agricultural research institutes, the INIAs and the meeting of the Agtech network of the Americas). It is increasingly the region’s annual pulse check. 

That pulse is stronger than it was just a few years ago. When the Digital Agri Hub ran a regional launch event roughly three years back, the landscape looked advanced in pockets but fragmented overall, with limited collaboration between actors, sparse policy coordination, and little international exchange beyond Spanish-speaking ties. The event has become one of the places where that fragmentation is being addressed with intent. IICA deserves real credit for filling this gap, supporting newly emerging service providers, facilitating matchmaking, and encouraging collaboration across borders and sectors. At the same time, the event helps governments, farmers’ organisations, researchers, investors, and donors clearly articulate their needs and grasp the sector’s innovations. 

In this context, IICA invited me to share perspectives on the AKIS (acronym for Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System) in the European Union, on how it is currently being promoted within the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP,) and in connection to both advisory services, agricultural research, and digitalisation in Europe in general.  More precisely, on how “macro-AKIS”, i.e. platforms (technical and institutional) operating at the national level and with national stakeholders, should be linked to “micro-AKIS” (how information on possible innovations is shared at the individual farm level, mainly informally among peers) and “meso-AKIS”, where intermediaries such as cooperatives, consultancy services, and retail can operate as agents of knowledge and innovation transfer.  

What I saw in San José suggests the region is on a fast-paced, promising growth. I am referring, for example, to the application of AI-assisted satellite imagery classification for monitoring irrigation, providing farm advisory, and so on. Many of the solutions I have seen presented rival those currently offered in the European or African context. In the latter case, this has occurred particularly in sectors where international cooperation has invested heavily through multilateral or bilateral public organizations, as well as impact investors and philanthropic entities.  

The energy I have observed in the many, mostly very young and highly trained, service is encouraging and important, because often momentum precedes systemic changes. 

But it's not all rosy. IICA’s mapping of national ecosystems reveals persistent fragmentation and weak policy coordination, reflecting a sector still feeling its way through a somewhat chaotic start.  

Rewarding innovative startups in San José showcased a vast pool of talent, which speaks to the region’s growth potential. However, the experience of other regions is instructive: startups cannot thrive without the support of the whole ecosystem. Otherwise, they risk finding themselves in a vicious circle we've already seen: a series of pilot projects, but ultimately too many promising initiatives that disappear before generating lasting value. 

I think of governments that must implement enabling policies; of investors who must be able to understand, based on objective metrics, the actual characteristics and strengths of the proposed solutions. I think of farmers' associations who also need to navigate a market that is still often opaque, and who can actually become a valuable ally of the solutions providers themselves: to co-develop solutions that serve the farmers and are not simply "parachuted" by yet another technological hype. 

So what’s next? AKIS may hold the key. Properly adapted to Latin America and the Caribbean, national and subnational AKIS platforms can unite research centers, solution providers, farmers and their organisations, investors, and policymakers to craft realistic policies and roadmaps tailored to the region's diverse realities. As one of the most brilliant Agtech solution providers I have spoken with told me, it's not about pursuing the Silicon Valley model here; it wouldn't work. It's about finding a suitable path, one that takes into account the existing diversities across countries in terms of agro-ecological contexts, forms of agriculture (for their production orientation and their commercial, emerging, or subsistence nature), and the different levels of technological and institutional “digital readiness”. 

A legitimate question is whether AKIS can exist without a clear political commitment to coordination between different countries. In the medium term, certainly not. But in the short term, embryonic AKIS can still be formed with whoever is willing to contribute. Think of them as coalitions of the ready, which can also serve as constructive pressure groups, helping governments see both the urgency and the upside. 

As another participant explained to me, governments are already exposed, or soon will be, to the tumultuous process of digitalization in agriculture. The illuminating example of Peru was cited, where the EUDR, the European regulation on deforestation (although currently being "slowed down" by the European Commission itself), by requiring the creation of digital farm registries for production traceability, forces" the relevant agencies to move in this direction. Because of EUDR,  government organisations now realize the need to create such registries, and by doing so start appreciating the advantages of digitalization.  

They do it for themselves, to reduce costs, and as a building block for many impactful applications in the agricultural sector. And they do it to respond to farmers, who often come to them saying: “We are doing our part to produce in a sustainable way and document that we are not cutting down the forest, now you should do yours". When the “give-and-get” is visible (share data, receive better services), adoption accelerates. 

So what should happen next? IICA, with a series of “Digital Agriculture Days” carried out before the Pan-American event, strengthened country-level networks of digital ecosystem actors.  The INIAs have in place collaborative research efforts. IICA launched and continues to support the network of agtech solution providers. 

So why not think about building a sort of embryo of AKIS with the interested parties and in the countries that are willing to do so? If not already, I expect governments will join soon.  

The “Semana” made one thing unmistakable: the ingredients are on the table, from capable providers, engaged researchers, active farmer groups, and policymakers who see both the risks of inaction and the benefits of coordination. The task now is to connect those ingredients through AKIS-based platforms that turn one-off successes into systemic transformations. 

Latin America and the Caribbean have the compass now and should continue to use it.