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FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean

Investing in Agrifood Systems of Latin America and the Caribbean

Hybrid event, August 18 y 19, 2026

Live Streaming - Day 2

   

Background

   

Latin America and the Caribbean plays a strategic role in food production and faces significant exposure to climate risks. However, the financing reaching its agrifood systems remains insufficient and fragmented to address the magnitude of its challenges and opportunities.

In response to this challenge, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) invites governments, integration mechanisms, international cooperation agencies, national and regional development banks, civil society, and the private sector to identify the conditions, instruments, and partnerships that will make it possible to transform opportunities into investment.

As part of these efforts, FAO invites you to the event “Investing in the Agrifood Systems of Latin America and the Caribbean” to promote a high-level dialogue aimed at moving from access to scaling up of investments in the region’s agrifood systems, addressing the different stages of the financing continuum.

Live Streaming - Day 1

   

 

Resultados esperados

   

billete

Promote territorial financial ecosystems with differentiated pathways to inclusion, bankability, and investment

Strengthen strategic partnerships to increase the resilience of agrifood systems.

Establish a task force focused on innovative and inclusive financing for the region's agrifood systems

Thematic Panels

   

    August 18

Explore how microfinance can be better adapted to agricultural cycles, productive informality, the lack of traditional collateral and the climate vulnerability affecting rural territories.  

Learn about the case of community kitchens in Peru, which will provide an opportunity to reflect on how to respond to situations where there is high social and community value, but traditional financing does not reach. Through open-ended questions, participants will contribute ideas, experiences, and possible instruments.

The session will discuss how formalization, demand aggregation and coordination can improve the bankability of rural actors. The panel will focus on the transition from dispersed production units with limited management capacity towards stronger rural organizations that can negotiate better terms, access a wider range of financial instruments and channel investment towards resilient agrifood systems. 

Discover how national development banks can help transform fragmented rural financing interventions into more structured systems through specialized credit lines, guarantees, second-tier funds, technical assistance, concessional financing, green products, insurance, digital instruments and cofinancing mechanisms involving commercial banks, cooperatives, international financial institutions and climate funds.  

   August 19

Drawing on the experience of the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, this session will provide an opportunity to reflect on the different factors that contribute to bankability, beyond the financial instrument itself. These include data quality, clarity of demand, risk identification, institutional coordination, and a project portfolio capable of attracting public, private, and climate finance.

Take part in this discussion on how the private sector can help close financing gaps through instruments such as value chain finance, green credit, impact investment, insurance, guarantees, and patient capital. The session will also explore the conditions needed for these actors to increase their participation in rural agrifood systems.

This collaborative challenge invites participants to explore how a Water Fund can evolve from a grant-based model toward a blended finance mechanism that mobilizes public and private resources as well as credit.

Explore how to scale up financing and improve the resilience of agrifood systems by combining public, private, and concessional capital through innovative instruments such as carbon markets, blended finance, and guarantees; and review how to structure financial mechanisms to expand investment in family farming, climate resilience, and sustainable productive transition.

 

Key Messages

   

Financing at the Centre of Agrifood Systems Transformation
FAO as a Facilitator for Investment Mobilization
Task Force on Innovative and Inclusive Financing (FIISA)
Include Lagging Rural Sectors to Increase Productivity
Promoting enabling environment for agrifood investment with integrated public policies and stronger governments
Development Banks and International Financial Institutions: Strategic Partners for Scaling Up Investments
Financial Ecosystems that Enable Differentiated Pathways for Inclusion, Bankability, and Investment
Promote intersectoral Partnerships to Strengthen Territorial Governance, Public Institutions, and Reduce Private Investment Risks
Videos

   

LARC39: Financing to Transform Agrifood Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean

Amazonia with a Future: Investing for a Sustainable Bioeconomy (available only in Spanish)

Activities

Related links
Key Documents
publicación
Contact

Luiz Beduschi

Senior Policy Officer in Rural Development

Catalina Acosta

Communication implementation and awareness consultant

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