Young leaders from Latin America present innovative solutions and make commitments for a sustainable agriculture

By Bayer Communications Latam

Finding answers to the challenging question "How to feed a hungry planet?" was the goal for 100 young representatives selected from 49 countries that had the opportunity to discuss ideas focused on overcoming the global agricultural challenges.

This was possible during the 3rd edition of Youth Ag-Summit, a global bi-annual conference designed to inspire and connect the next generation of young leaders in agriculture promoted by Bayer in partnership with two Belgian farmers associations Groene Kring (GK) and Fédération des Jeunes Agriculteurs (FJA). The summit brought together these delegates in Brussels to tackle one of humanity’s biggest challenges: how to feed a growing population in a more sustainable manner.


Latin America was expressively represented by 15 young leaders from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Peru. With their own experiences and backgrounds, they could create innovative ideas to address the conference’s proposal: achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, ensure food security, and promote a sustainable agriculture.


Motivated by reaching these goals and becoming real agents of change, Latin America delegates - who ranged from age 18 to 25 - worked together in groups with other young participants during an intense week to build and generate their projects thinking about innovative, sustainable and actionable solutions to global food security challenges. Their mission was to come up with concrete and new ideas which could drive agricultural progress across the globe and that already could be put into practice as they come back to their home mother countries.

The result of their effort throughout the Summit showed up in innovative solutions that were presented to a jury of experts at the last day of the event. The three best ideas were chosen by the committee, based on criteria such as viability, innovation and creativity and they are already receiving funding from Bayer to be implemented: 3.000 euros (3rd place), 5.000 euros (2nd place) and 10.000 respectively (1st place).  Latin America stood out in this award: all of the three winning projects had representatives from the region: Colombia, El Salvador, Chile and Brazil.

Juan Pablo Casadiego Guevara from Colombia, and Diana Pamela Rico Campos from El Salvador, were part of AGRIKUA group that elaborated a plan to combat gender inequality in rural Kenya, through a university-based platform for young Kenyan women that are looking for opportunities in agriculture and got the first place.

The second place was destined for the team “Seeds of Change” who had focus on quality education with a plan to promote agriculture in schools through young agricultural advocates, in order to fill the gap between the people who consume and the people who produce food. Jhon Felipe Sandoval Pineda, of Colombia, has integrated this team.

The delegates Ignacio Mateo Rubio, from Chile, and Tamires Santos Lacerda, from Brazil, have joined the Imperfect Picks group suggesting a campaign in animation to promote the consumption of "ugly fruits" for children and allow a broader cultural change, so that people can accept foods with unusual appearance.

In addition to the awards for the selected projects, all of the 100 delegates have committed themselves with “Three Little Things” which means by simple and concrete actions to become a reality now that they’re back to their countries.

Latin America delegates’ commitments reflected the wish to transform the reality in the community where they live. Brazilian representatives have committed on teaching children about the origin of food; how they are produced and how to feed properly becoming a responsible consumer and learning new recipes that reuse ingredients that are usually thrown away.

The desire to be an ambassador of a sustainable agriculture by disseminating the importance of responsible consumption reducing food waste was the main commitment from the delegates of Colombia and Equator.

The concern to reduce poverty and malnutrition rates in Guatemala and El Salvador through the awareness of food waste and the engagement in education initiatives to end hunger were the commitments made by the delegates from Central America and the Caribbean.

Encouraging people to study more about agriculture and seek for sustainable alternatives, optimizing the use of natural resources such as water were the commitments made by young people from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay.

In a general way, Youth Ag-Summit had offered an intense journey to the Latin America young leaders. Inspired by the energy and the opportunity of sharing ideas and experiences with people from all over the world as well as all the relevant knowledge they have acquired, the delegates of the region are now a real agents of change that will contribute actively to transform the future of agriculture in their local communities.