There is a new generation of rural entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean that no longer talks only about producing more food. They naturally think in terms of biomass, traceability, bioinputs, carbon capture, biodiversity, and circular economy. For them, transforming agricultural waste into energy, tracking a product’s journey from the field to the consumer, or developing microorganisms that improve crops is no longer a futuristic or academic concept: it is beginning to form part of a new way of thinking about businesses linked to agriculture and rural territories.
More than 1,100 projects from twenty countries in Latin America and the Caribbean support those statements. They are the response to the LATAM 2025 Impact Agro-bioentrepreneurship Competition, promoted by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and FONTAGRO, whose results were revealed in April and which ultimately became a snapshot of an ecosystem far broader than expected.
Far from being a competition limited to agricultural innovation projects, the call exceeded the initial expectations of its organizers and highlighted the breadth of the phenomenon: from bioinputs and biomaterials to carbon capture solutions, bioenergy, and new bioproducts applied to food, health, and cosmetics.
The phenomenon is not limited to the region. The World Economic Forum estimates that the global bioeconomy is already worth close to four trillion dollars and that more than fifty countries have specific strategies for its development, in a process driven by new technologies in synthetic biology, engineering, and decentralized production models.
The new scenario of “smart work”
In different parts of the continent and beyond, that transformation is beginning to be reflected in the daily practices of very young new producers and rural entrepreneurs. During one of the interviews that form part of the IICA series Leaders of Rurality, Mackenzie Fingerhut, a young farmer in Canada, perfectly summarized one of the most interesting aspects of the new rural economy.
There is an “enormous disconnect” between rural and urban areas, with “many people who have never seen how food is produced, and that influences their decisions as consumers.” That is why Mackenzie is committed to traceability and transparency.
“There are projects that allow people to scan a QR code on a package of flour or a bottle of beer and see the full history of the product: where the ingredients were planted, how they were processed, who produced them.” During the conversation with IICA, he emphasized that it is a tool that “builds trust.”
In another interview in the series, the also very young Akiesha Fergus and Ryan Khadou, a couple based in Saint Kitts and Nevis, showed that not even major infrastructure limitations and climate threats stop this new generation. “Our motto is ‘work smart,’” by applying new tools and knowledge. There is no need to “work hard” the way it was done decades ago; now “it is a matter of science and technology, of achieving better crop results,” and “understanding the environment and the land,” Fergus added.
The links within agriculture
This evolution is significantly different from what was observed in sector analyses just a few years ago. In 2019, a report by the IDB Lab titled AgTech Innovation Map in Latin America and the Caribbean had already identified the first signs of an emerging ecosystem, although it was still described as an incipient sector with highly concentrated growth. However, the gap between that diagnosis and today’s reality is remarkable: what the IDB considered an incipient trend back then has now become a wave of maturity that exceeded all initial forecasts.
The fundamental difference lies in the fact that the approach is no longer a “green agenda” or a declaration of intent, but rather a structure of costs and opportunities. For this new generation of rural entrepreneurs, sustainability is not an accessory concept but a financial asset: biomass is no longer managed as waste, but as the raw material for a new business model based on circularity and value addition at origin.
During the presentation of the competition results, the authorities of the promoting organizations validated this paradigm shift. Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of IICA, highlighted the importance of promoting agro-bioentrepreneurs to “build a world of innovation in rural areas that increasingly integrates young people and women into the sustainable use of biodiversity.”
According to Ibrahim, the competition sought to “contribute to scaling up initiatives that build a nexus between agriculture, energy, health, and environmental care,” demonstrating that the bioeconomy “is not just a theoretical concept, but one that produces concrete products that benefit people.”
IL BIOECONOMISTA 