New Innovations In Agriculture

The challenges of today’s world are bringing many pressures to bear on agriculture: population growth, the impact of climate change, the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, rapid development of the emerging economies and growing instability associated with land,water and energy shortages.


This scenario heightens the critical role of innovation to make agriculture more
competitive and sustainable.

Innovation, in general terms, is a process by which something new is implemented in a given context; it is socially appropriate and provides benefits for the parties involved. It serves as a driver of economic growth and competitiveness in the countries.

Innovation and the processes that facilitate it do not emerge from nothing; innovation arises in a particular socioeconomic context and is shaped by the presence (or absence) of favorable conditions in which it can thrive (IICA 2013a).

The innovation process comes about largely within “innovation systems” made up of organizations and private and public stakeholders interconnected in different ways
and possessing the technical, commercial and financial competencies and inputs necessary for innovation.

The government plays a fundamental role, supplying the economic, social and institutional conditions that foster innovation; it does this through effective
policies for (World Bank Institute 2013):

• Providing innovators with resources (finances, services and knowledge) by
building a suitable support system.

• Removing obstacles in regulatory frameworks, including legal, trade, governance and investment barriers.

• Strengthening the country’s human resources through a sound educational system that includes all levels of schooling (from primary through higher education) and vocational training, and that counteracts the brain drain.

• Promoting research and access to up-todate information by means of an effective
research policy that encourages greater investment in research and development,
meeting the country’s needs, seizing opportunities and creating effective linkages among all the creators and users of knowledge.


IICA looks to innovation as a philosophy and basic principle of its work as it responds to the countries’ technical cooperation needs and seeks a culture of innovation that will permeate all that it does. This requires an enabling environment where innovation is the driving force, the key feature of technical cooperation and the means for advancing the Institute’s strategic objectives.


The innovative solutions and capabilities that arise from such work will contribute to the development of rural territories in ways that respect the needs of the many different stakeholders: small-, medium- and largescale producers and the most vulnerable population groups. .