Challenges

The main objective of the current project is to contribute to the Government’s efforts to ensure food security, strengthen the agro-industrial value chains, stimulate employment and create favourable conditions for the revitalization of the industrial sectors of Venezuela.

Toward a Solution

Specifically, the project focuses on modernizing five agro-industrial value chains by bolstering local capacities in processing and provision of agricultural inputs. The project prioritizes the adoption of precision agriculture and innovative agricultural good practices, agroindustrial technological upgrading, agroindustrial development in vulnerable communities and financing options for agroindustrial value chains. Ultimately, the project seeks to increase the sustainable supply of quality agro-products and strengthen national expertise. In February-June 2021, a pilot group of enterprises and cooperatives in the prioritized industrial sectors contributing to the sustainable production of sugar, rice, legumes, maize and soybeans was identified to generate an investment portfolio of concrete improvement solutions.

The first seven improvement solutions are currently being implemented to address some constraints in the agro-industrial value chains. As first results of the Program, the improvement solution “Increasing corn yields in the State of Portuguesa” has shown that the combination of the use of digital technologies and good agricultural practices contributed to improve corn production in the demonstration plots by 29%, and to improve farmers’ profits by 23%. Another of the improvement solutions being implemented is the “Increase in soybean and rice yields, incorporating digital technologies and innovative agronomic protocols”. Introducing soybean (legume) cultivation avoids the practice of monoculture in rice producers, increases nitrogen levels and avoids soil depletion. In addition, six weather stations have been acquired and installed in productive areas, as one of the actions to promote a culture of climate information management by agricultural producers.

The pilot project “Access to financial instruments adapted to the specific needs of stakeholders”, has carried out an extensive collection of relevant information on the financial needs of agro-industrial value chain actors and also on the financial offer, including banking, stock exchange and other alternative sectors. Thus far, the capacity building program has successfully conducted a total of 9 training series, benefiting a total of 161 individuals, of which 33% are women and 4% are young people.

The UNIDO project established linkages with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with its HQ in Mexico City. As a result, CIMMYT sent several types of maize seeds for testing in different regions of Venezuela, as an important contribution to the project for the rehabilitation of the national maize seed system. As a second cooperation track of this partnership, CIMMYT has offered several training courses to Venezuelan companies and R&D institutions.

Under the “Increase yields by managing soy as a rotation crop with rice” initiative of the UNIDO IUMP linkages were established with the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) to count on them as international advisors of the project. International expert in soy and rice rotations has contributed with Brazilian experience reinforcing knowledge and skills of beneficiary producers in Venezuela. In January 2023, five Venezuelan rice producers and researchers, including two working with the UNIDO programme, were invited by FLAR to participate in a Technical Tour to learn about the Brazilian system of rotational rice and soybean production.

The R&D partnership with CIMMYT and FLAR is contributing to the exchange of best regional and international expertise and transfer of know-how. As part of the coordinated inter-agency work between UNIDO and FAO, synergies continue to be explored between two initiatives implemented by both agencies in cooperation with the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA): UNIDO’s pilot project on “Seed and grain conditioning improvement and storage in Espinital community/Portuguesa State”, and INIA-FAO project “Strengthening technical and scientific potential in the production of legume seeds for family and peasant agriculture”. UNIDO helped establish linkages between FAO and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center that provided maize seeds for FAO projects.

The pilot projects are introducing innovative practices and technologies tested during the implementation of UNIDO projects in other countries, inter alia: Together with the UNIDO Latin American and the Caribbean Division, the local project team developed an additional training programme proposal to complement the capacity-building program envisaged under the IUMP project in Venezuela. This training proposal encompasses 5 crop-producing sectors targeted by the IUMP plus coffee and cocoa. The proposal was submitted to the Latin American Development Bank (CAF) and approved in December 2022. The project was also approved internally by UNIDO (ID 200267), and it is expected to be implemented in 2023-2024 to strengthen the human and technical capacities of identified national industry support institutions according to the planned activities.

By employing a strategy known as “dissemination-knowledge transfer-replication,” the project seeks to expand the outputs and outcomes of the pilot projects among various actors in the value chain, which consis of the following two intervention tracks:

1. Selected enterprises and cooperatives undergo industrial modernization for market positioning and sustainable supply of quality agro-products.
2. National institutions and expertise receive support to enhance their capacities in enterprise diagnosis, modernization, business competitiveness, marketing, networking, value chain upgrading, partnerships, and related agro-industry services.

The project aims to enhance the current food production of prioritized crops, ensuring efficient commercialization of the final products through the implementation of improvement solutions.