Technological Innovation Strategy to Improve Productivity and Competitiveness of Product Chains for Central America and the Dominican Republic

The Regional Project for Technological Innovation Strategy to Improve Productivity and Competitiveness of Product Chains for Central America and the Dominican Republic (PRESICA) developed an innovation model which is implemented from the operation of local innovation networks, which develop work agendas set for the formulation, design, execution and evaluation of research actions, technological validation, training, technology transfer and extension, defined from the technological demands of producers, under the context of agri-food chains and with a territorial focus.

This initiative emerged as a response to the international situation in 2008, marked by the high variability in international food prices, which especially affected the most impoverished strata of the population, as well as the need to promote agriculture capable of coping with the great global challenges, such as Climate Change, the reduction of arable land and its degradation due to the effects of intensive use for agricultural production. PRESICA proposed contributing to improve the conditions of productivity and competitiveness of Central American agriculture, through the promotion of technological and institutional innovations in agricultural chains of key crops for Food and Nutrition Security. For this, an intervention strategy was defined through the formation of Local Consortia for Agricultural Technological Innovation focused on value chains affected by the variability of food prices and which are important in the diet of the inhabitants of the region.