World Agri-Tech South America Focus on Sustainability

Last month, 697 delegates from 30 different countries gathered in São Paulo, Brazil, for the World Agri-Tech South America Summit. As a Silver sponsor of the summit, AgriThority sent Jerry Duff and Ricardo Duarte to represent the company, and Horacio Buscaglia led a roundtable discussion, “Challenges of Moving into Markets Internationally.”  

Horacio Buscaglia leads a roundtable discussion on the topic “Challenges of Moving into Markets Internationally.”

The agtech and biotech sectors are exploding with growth and the discussions around these topics and interactions among participants were contagious and robust. Throughout the two days of sessions and breakout groups, three key topics continued to emerge as critical components to scaling environmental and economic sustainability across the value chain. 

      • CONNECTIVITY, digitization, mapping and automation of agricultural activities and the entire production process are quickly gaining space in the daily life of rural producers.  The adoption of new technologies that capture and manage data will help growers to identify bottlenecks in logistics, marketing, application of inputs, monitoring of crops, harvest and phytosanitary threats.   
      • SUSTAINABILITY, climate change, economic crises and hunger continue to be a priority, and affecting change will require great efforts, mobilization and long-term planning. According to Julio A Berdegué, Deputy Director General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), currently 20 million farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean already produce enough food to feed 1.3 billion people (twice the region’s population). There is a strong demand from the population, regulatory bodies and governments to produce healthier and nutritious foods, while using safe, traceable technologies that do not harm the environment.  
      • CARBON has great potential with the voluntary carbon credit market currently estimated at US$ 50 billion (about R$ 260 billion) by 2030. The development of a carbon market is seen as fundamental to protecting the environment and containing climate change as it would create incentives for the farmer to capitalize and produce more.  

“The South America Summit illuminated potential pathways to commercialization, as well as the realism that the path is mined for disruption if poorly planned,” said Jerry Duff, AgriThority Founder and President. “We are looking forward to continuing our involvement in World AgriTech by attending the London Summit this fall.” 

Missed AgriThority at World AgriTech South America? Reach out to schedule a meeting.