Pathways, challenges and opportunities for digital technologies in global value chains: The case of coffee in Central America

Expanding high value international markets presents opportunities for smallholders and agrifood SMEs to gain remunerative employment, climb out of poverty, and improve their diets. One of the main challenges faced by smallholders and SMEs is inadequate access to digital technologies. The use of digital technologies in agri-food value chains has the potential to improve efficiency, profitability, and sustainability through increasing efficiency and decreasing transaction costs. However, inadequate digital infrastructure is hampering access to such technologies for many smallholders, and SMEs in agrifood value chains.

This event explored what types of digital innovations are available and how these can be tailored to the needs of different stakeholders in agri-food value chains, with special reference to the case of the coffee value chain in Central America. The first part of the event included a presentation from Jenny Melo (Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri / Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT / Huella Delta) to share her research findings on this issue. She is a rural sociologist at the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri. The second part of the event included a discussion with Néstor Javier Meneses Chacón (Instituto Hondureño del Café (IHCAFE)) and Andrea Monsalue Gardeazabal (The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)). The discussion used the context of Central America as a concrete reference to explore the possible pathways for digital innovations to contribute to improved efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability when brought to scale.

The event was in English, with Spanish interpretation.

A live forum on the topic is running on the event. Access here to submit your reflections, questions and start interacting with other stakeholders.