September 24, 2025
ARTICLE
The agri-food systems of many countries in the Americas face significant productivity and environmental gaps. Yet, the Americas possess a wealth of biological resources, the strength of agriculture and industry, and can harness bioeconomy into a driving force for prosperity. The bioeconomy integrates advances in biotechnology, digital technologies, and circular economic principles to leverage renewable biological resources such as crops, forests, fish, animals, bio-waste and microorganisms to produce food, materials and products, and energy.
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is harnessing advancements in science, technology, and innovation and the convergence of technological disciplines to build the bioeconomy in the Americas through its Bioeconomy Innovation Platform. The program positions the bioeconomy’s Systems Integration potential in major regional and international technical and political spheres, builds capacity of its member states to advance the bioeconomy, supports the design of policies, rules and regulations for the bioeconomy sector, develops tools, direct technical support and promotion of South-South cooperation and regional knowledge networks, and supports the creation of investment projects for bio-based businesses. This platform directly contributes to agricultural productivity growth by enabling producers to extract greater value from existing biological resources through bioeconomy innovations, helping reverse the concerning slowdown in total factor productivity across the Americas. It embodies the transition to the Systems Integration frontier. Investments in innovation and adoption are at the forefront of agricultural productivity growth.