World Bank’s AgriConnect targets resilient, inclusive agrifood growth across LAC

A series of recent World Bank and partner publications aligned with AgriConnect’s pillars provide evidence-based insights into how LAC can boost productivity, resilience, and inclusiveness across agrifood systems.

The agrifood sector stands as a cornerstone of economic growth, employment, and social stability across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). While primary agriculture contributes around 7 percent of regional GDP, the broader agrifood system—from farm production and processing to logistics, trade, and retail—accounts for nearly one quarter of GDP in many countries. In several LAC economies, the sector employs up to one-third of the workforce, underscoring its central role in livelihoods and inclusive development.

As the world’s largest net food-exporting region, LAC plays a critical role in both global and domestic food security. Against this backdrop, the World Bank’s AgriConnect initiative aims to transform the region’s agrifood systems—particularly for family farmers—through targeted public investments, policy reforms, and the mobilization of private capital. Together, these efforts support AgriConnect’s mission of “growing food, growing jobs.”

Transforming Agrifood Systems Through Evidence-Based Policy

A series of recent World Bank and partner publications aligned with AgriConnect’s pillars provide evidence-based insights into how LAC can boost productivity, resilience, and inclusiveness across agrifood systems.

Advancing Sustainable Agriculture

Several studies highlight the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable production models. Research on integrated crop–livestock–forest systems in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado biomes shows that these approaches can increase productivity and profitability while restoring degraded land and supporting reforestation.

Complementary analysis from Brazil’s Paraíba State Sustainable Rural Development Project demonstrates how improved livestock management and dairy productivity can significantly reduce methane emissions—cutting emissions by more than 23 percent compared to baseline scenarios over five years.

Broader rural transformation strategies are also examined in the World Bank’s economic memorandum on the Amazon, which emphasizes governance reforms, conservation finance, and sustainable livelihoods as pathways to protect forests while raising living standards.

Improving Trade, Markets, and Market Access

Efficient markets are essential for food security and farmer incomes. Studies in Central America analyze how international food and fertilizer price shocks are transmitted to domestic markets, affecting household welfare and exposing weaknesses in policy responses.

Country-specific deep dives in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic examine market structures in maize and banana value chains, identifying inefficiencies and policy gaps that contribute to price distortions. Other research focuses on agrologistics in Northern Central America, highlighting infrastructure, information, and innovation investments needed to modernize family farming systems.

In response to new global regulations, joint FAO–World Bank work assesses whether smallholder coffee farmers in Guatemala and Honduras can meet the European Union’s deforestation-free requirements, outlining how cooperatives and certification schemes can support compliance and market access.

Lessons from Food Price Crises

A regional review of policy responses to the food price crises of 2008, 2011, and 2022 finds that governments often relied on costly, broad-based subsidies with limited targeting and weak exit strategies. The analysis calls for stronger social protection systems and better agrifood infrastructure to protect vulnerable populations while building long-term resilience.

Strengthening Food and Nutrition Security

Food security assessments, such as the case of Aruba, show how strengthening domestic agriculture and adopting climate-smart production—at both commercial and household levels—can diversify economies and improve resilience to shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking Ahead: Future Agrifood Pathways

The Future FOODSCAPES study offers a forward-looking perspective, exploring how technology adoption, climate change, policy choices, and shifting consumer demand could reshape agrifood systems in LAC. It highlights pathways toward sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food futures under different development scenarios.

A Roadmap for Resilient and Inclusive Growth

Taken together, these publications reinforce a clear message: targeted public investment, smarter policies, and innovative financing can unlock productivity gains, create jobs, attract private investment, and build resilient agrifood systems across Latin America and the Caribbean. By grounding action in robust evidence, AgriConnect is helping countries strengthen food security, support family farmers, and position the region as a global leader in sustainable agrifood development.