IICA and MIOA maintain that information technology use in agricultural markets would enhance food trade and transparency
San Jose, Costa Rica, 12 February 2020 (IICA) – With the support of IICA, the Market Information Organization of the Americas (MIOA) conducted a sensitization session with agricultural market information specialists from the region on trends related to technology use in agriculture, to enable them to develop projects and state of the art tools to strengthen commercial and production decision making in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A group of six agricultural market information system (AMIS) experts met in Costa Rica, at the Headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), where they learned about the merits and potential of big data, artificial intelligence, chatbots, digital marketing, the Internet of Things, machine learning and satellite imagery for use in strengthening food trade in the hemisphere and increasing the transparency of markets.
The specialists, members of the MIOA information and communication technology advisory panel, were from Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, St. Lucia and the United States. The meeting facilitated the development of a work plan to enable the organization to guide countries in the Americas, for the purpose of strengthening the AMIS.
Terry Long, President of MIOA, maintained that, “We need modern, consistent and specialized agricultural market information systems that are capable of sharing information with producers, traders and consumers, as well as institutional and international users.
Some of the most noteworthy projects presented during the session were those aiming to bring the producer closer to the end consumer, as well as those related to agricultural market information validation and the facilitation of food purchasing through mobile apps. Emphasis was also placed on the development of a platform to provide feedback from producers.
IICA, CENFOTEC University, the company Accenture, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as well as Costa Rica’s Integrated Program of Agricultural Marketing (PIMA) and National Animal Health Service (SENASA), also contributed based on their knowledge and expertise in the use of the AMIS.
Helena Ramírez, MIOA Technical Coordinator, confirmed that “The representatives each outlined the developments made in their country and the development of information systems to compile, process, analyze and disseminate agricultural market information, supported by the capacities and professional networks provided by the MIOA.
The MIOA is a technical cooperation network that promotes and facilitates access to and the transparency of agricultural markets in its 33 member countries, through the exchange of experiences, knowledge, information and services aimed at improving the capacity, quality and transparency of Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS) services. The Technical Secretariat is managed by IICA, from San Jose, Costa Rica.
Video: Agricultural market information system (AMIS)
Videos: ICT panel MIOA
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Más información:
Helena Ramírez, Coordinadora Técnica de OIMA.