The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) is co-organizing and cosponsoring a hemispheric conference in support of farmer producer organizations (FPOs) in Latin America. “Smallholder Producer Organizations as Business Entities in Latin America: Scope, Challenges and the Road Ahead” will be held on May 6–7 at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) headquarters in San José, Costa Rica.

Members of the public can watch livestreams of the conference on YouTube in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The conference will bring together academic researchers, practitioners, policymakers and FPO representatives to discuss challenges and opportunities for Latin American FPOs, and to prepare a collaborative research agenda in support of FPOs across the region. The conference program includes a series of keynote presentations, seven panel discussions featuring regional experts, and a session with agriculture ministers from Latin America. Panel discussion topics include the current state of FPOs in Latin America, representation of vulnerable groups in FPOs, factors that contribute to or affect the development of FPOs, institutional collaboration and strengthening in support of FPOs, and the social, economic and environmental impacts of FPOs.

An open-access e-book based on the conference proceedings will be published in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

In addition to TCI and the IICA, the conference is cosponsored by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, FONTAGRO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Featured image: A farmer works on a field of blue agave in Jalisco, Mexico. (Photo by javarman/Shutterstock)