The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has warned that a widening gap between the agricultural technologies available to farmers and the pace at which those tools are being adopted is limiting the sector's ability to respond to its most pressing challenges.
The warning came as the fifth edition of Digital Agriculture Week (DAW) concluded after four days of meetings at IICA headquarters, bringing together policymakers, researchers, private-sector representatives and producers from across the Americas and the Caribbean.
According to IICA, the technology needed to address many of the sector's difficulties — from climate variability and pest pressure to market access and traceability — already exists. The obstacle, the institute says, lies in adoption: getting those tools into the hands of farmers and ensuring they are used effectively at the farm level.
The gap has direct implications for Dominica and its Caribbean neighbours, where agriculture remains a pillar of rural livelihoods and food security. Small island states face particular constraints, including limited land, high input costs, vulnerability to hurricanes and drought, and a farming population that is often ageing and dispersed across steep terrain.
Digital tools — including mobile advisory services, precision farming applications, remote sensing, and digital market platforms — have been promoted as ways to raise productivity and resilience. But uptake across the region has been uneven, with smaller holdings and remote communities often the last to benefit.
IICA has not published a full set of recommendations from the 2026 edition, but the institute's central message is that the sector cannot close the gap through technology alone. Adoption depends on training, affordable connectivity, extension services, financing, and trust between farmers and the institutions promoting new methods.
For Dominica, the issue intersects with ongoing efforts to strengthen agriculture as part of the island's economic diversification. The sector has been identified as a priority alongside tourism, fisheries and geothermal energy, and farmers have repeatedly called for more practical support in the field rather than pilot programmes that end when funding does.
Digital Agriculture Week is an annual forum hosted by IICA, which works with member states across the hemisphere on agricultural development, innovation and rural well-being. The 2026 edition was the fifth in the series, and its theme centred on the distance between innovation and on-farm practice.
The institute's position suggests that governments and regional bodies will be judged less on the technologies they showcase and more on whether those technologies reach the people who work the land. That, IICA indicates, remains the harder task.
