COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to reshape Latin America's agri-food systems

A new paper from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stresses that food production and health must be at the forefront of funding and investment needs during the post-COVID-19 recovery and transformation phase.

The new report on the outlook for agriculture and rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean indicates that the final period of the health, economic and social crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic represents an opportunity to transform the regional development model and also to build "resilient agrifood systems in the face of future risks".  

After the 7% drop in regional GDP in 2020, the document calls for building back better, and stresses that long-term transformative actions must go hand in hand with the immediate crisis recovery process to address health, economic and climatic issues simultaneously. 

The agri-food sector was more resilient to the health, logistical and financial challenges posed by the pandemic than other economic sectors: regional agri-food exports increased by 2.7% in 2020 compared to 2019, while total exports fell by 9.1%.

The paper argues that during the post-pandemic phase, a priority issue must be to accelerate the digitisation of agriculture. 

"Digital agriculture can make a substantive contribution to transforming and strengthening agri-food systems as they evolve towards sustainability and social inclusion," said Manuel Otero, director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.  

He added that digital technologies "can generate higher, sustainable and resilient production, more efficient and accessible markets, safer, more nutritious and traceable food and, of course, more inclusion and better quality of life for all rural actors".

The report notes that the digitisation of agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean is still "incipient", but that "it is beginning to accelerate and will become inevitable". However, its use is still low and unequal due to various barriers: connectivity services reach 71% of the urban population, while in rural areas the percentage drops to 36.8%.

"This is and will continue to be a process in which the winners will be those who have the greatest capacity for innovation, for being ahead of the curve, for discovering and amplifying new solutions and ways of producing, processing, trading, buying, selling and consuming food," explained FAO's regional representative, Julio Berdegué.

To achieve the transformation of agrifood systems, the study highlights the need to invest in good sustainable management practices, promote cooperatives and take advantage of the opportunities that the region has to add value to the biological and generate new socio-economic opportunities in rural areas.  

The document was jointly prepared by FAO, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.