Food insecurity spiked in many countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years. In 2014, 24.6 percent of the region’s population was food insecure, compared with 40.6 percent in 2021, largely as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns and their economic fallout. In the rest of the world the situation doesn’t look better. 

This grim information comes from Jose Luis Chicoma, former Minister of Production in Peru and member of Foodtank, a non-profit organization based in New Orleans.

A May 25 press release from Agtools Inc., Orange, CA, goes on to quote Barbara Stinson, president of the World Food Prize Foundation (WFP): “We are facing huge problems that are threatening food production, industrialization, transportation, and distribution. This is affecting the quantity, quality, and availability of food, thereby impacting vulnerable communities. These threats are COVID, conflict and climate change.” World Food Prize is based in Des Moines, IA. 

Related article: Food security hits crisis levels, FAO says

According to its release, Agtools is the world’s largest and most curated repository of specialty crops – fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and plants. 

Agtools will be presenting at the upcoming Digital Agriculture Week 2023 in San Jose, Costa Rica. This show is organized by IICA, the American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture.

Federico Bert, Digital Agriculture Specialist, IICA, notes, “The issues to be covered with regard to agrifood digitalization include initiatives and public policies in countries of the Americas, agricultural digitalization developments from an academic perspective, funding challenges in agricultural digital transformation, digital innovation ecosystems and investment funds, roles and synergies of public and private stakeholders in the digital age, and lessons learned from digitalization experiences in various regions of the Americas.”

Agtools was one of the winners among 15 out of 70 participating companies from 15 countries in the Digital Agricultural Week organized by (IICA) in Costa Rica from May 29-June 1, 2024.