For this purpose, a face-to-face and online meeting was held at FAO’s regional headquarters, located in the capital of Chile, with the participation of experts and officials from the Triangular South-South Cooperation Program and China.

Rodrigo Dadiszcz, a specialist in digital transformation and innovation, said that one of the main difficulties in strengthening small agricultural cooperatives is the lack of access to a quality broadband Internet connection.

An effective implementation of the Internet in rural areas, based on the organizational capacity of these small productive units, could be used for the development of innovative technologies.

Among them, Dadiszcz mentioned the application of sensors for climate monitoring, irrigation probes, drones for detecting production problems, as well as a social networking strategy.

Leonel Tapia, coordinator of the FAO-China-Celac project, explained the goal of implementing 12 pilot programs in an equal number of countries to promote the future development of family farming.

He added that there are six plans to promote e-commerce in Barbados, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, among others, with applications to support areas such as tourism and economic and social services.

The meeting was attended by specialists from Colombia and Ecuador, as well as Digital Villages consultants from Uruguay, Chile, Panama, Cuba, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

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