FAO held a virtual seminar to learn about the experience on digitalization of agriculture in China

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through the Triangular South-South Cooperation project: Digital transformation and innovation in the agriculture, held the webinar "Digitalization of agriculture: Chinese experience and the challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean". The objective was to share different initiatives implemented in China to promote and strengthen the digitalization in rural areas of the country. 

Katalina Moyano, Coordinator of the Triangular South-South Cooperation project, was in charge of inaugurating the activity. In her speech, she thanked the opportunity to know and learn from the digital process developed by the Asian country and highlighted the work carried out by the FAO-China project and the countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) mentioning that through this initiative  “we can promote the digital transformation in the territories of the region and contribute to reduce the existing gap in terms of connectivity and productivity of rural areas”.

Then it was the turn of Dr. Guofu Feng, an expert in digital agriculture and associated professor of the Shangai Ocean University, who is supporting the technical team of the project in the preparation of supporting the project's technical team in preparing the digital pilots that are being carried out in 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

During the webinar, Dr. Feng presented about the development of connectivity in China’s rural areas and explained how the country managed to advance in the use of the technology in the fields and shared several types of technologies and platforms that can be integrated in the food systems. In addition, he provided some recommendations regarding the challenges that the region is on its way to digitalization of agriculture.

"To materialize the technology in rural areas, we need not only the support of government policies, but also private investment”, he emphasized.

Finally, Dina López, South-South Cooperation Officer, mentioned the conclusions and key points of the Dr. Feng’s presentation. In her summary, she highlighted the benefits that farmers had in accessing digitalization thanks to the introduction of private investment and stressed the importance of government support in this process.

"The key message that he gave us is that to promote the digitalization gave us is that driving digitalization requires government support, a set of favorable public policies, as well as investment and long-term relationships. This is not accomplished in a year or two. It is a medium and long-term process”, she indicated.

It is important to say that the questions made by the audience will be answered on the website of the project "South-South Cooperation: Digital transformation and innovation in agriculture".

About the Triangular South-South Cooperation project: Digital transformation and innovation in agriculture

The FAO – China – CELAC project is part of the South-South Cooperation and support financially and technically the design and implementation of rural digitalization pilot plans in: Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.

The objective is to contribute to recovering livelihoods in the countryside. This will be doing through the digitization of rural areas (in support of the 1000 Digital Villages initiative) and the digital agriculture for small and medium-sized producers, working especially with vulnerable populations.

Watch the video here