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San Jose, June 29, 2022 (IICA) – Young leaders of the agricultural sector from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania participated in Costa Rica in the meeting of the Youth Ambassadors Program of the NextGen Ag Impact Network (NGIN) coalition, with the aim of learning about regenerative agriculture, sharing their experiences in the field and learn about actions for the transformation of agri-food systems.

The event took place at the Central Headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and brought together 17 people between the ages of 18 and 29 from NGIN, an international network that seeks to position regenerative agriculture as a way to achieve the Development Goals Sustainable.

Regenerative agriculture brings together and reconciles two of the crucial challenges facing the world: producing adequate and nutritious food and restoring ecosystems damaged by human activity.

The participants in the meeting in San José participated in a panel on regenerative agriculture with José Zaglul, former rector of Earth University; Katy de la Garza, executive director of Costa Rica Forever; Juan José Bolaños, agribusinessman and executive director of Piñalbo; Costa Rican deputy Priscilla Vindas and Lloyd Day, Deputy Director General of IICA.

Nele Herrmann Valente, President of the NGIN Coalition and Global Head of Engagement with Young Leaders in Agriculture and Food Systems at Bayer Crop Science, said: “It is crucial to increase the interest and attractiveness of agriculture for young people. young because we are living in a world where population growth requires more and better quality food.”
In the panel they learned about international efforts to restore health to highly degraded soils that have lost their capacity to produce and the evolution of markets towards more sustainable forms of production, without losing sight of profitability.

“NGIN is very diverse, we have people from all over the world and when we can exchange experiences and talk about our challenges we can create solutions together. We have to generate solutions that are more accessible to the population and at a lower cost. The innovations generated in the Fab Labs, like the one IICA has, can be part of those solutions,” said Ana Carolina Zimmermann, a 27-year-old Brazilian cattle producer and NGIN ambassador.
“We must generate new leaders who can capitalize on all the opportunities offered by the sector. We want IICA to vibrate with the number of people we are receiving, we hope to receive close to 5,000 young people in these same rooms where presidents and ministers of agriculture meet, and for the Institute to be a sounding board for a sector that is vital for the future sustainable development of the planet”, stated Manuel Otero, Director General of IICA.
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Institutional Communication Management: comunicacion.institucional@iica.int