Data or statistical facts on the situation and perspectives of agri-food systems and the impact of policies
Approximately 9,000 years has the domestication process of Teosinte from Mexico and Central America until becoming the corn we know today, thanks to the systematic selection work by Mesoamerican indigenous peoples (Velásquez, A., 2025).
3,500 years old are the first documented potato crops in South America, a tuber that in the 17th century saved Europe from famine, becoming one of the main contributions of the New World to global food security (Velásquez, A., 2025).
190 thousand million metric tons annually reach the volume of international corn trade, a cereal that evolved from teosinte thanks to domestication by the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America (Velásquez, A., 2025).
8,000 years old are the earliest evidences of avocado use in Mesoamerica, with archaeological evidence of its food and ritual importance in pre-Incan cultures from approximately 1500 B.C. in South America (Velásquez, A., 2025).
The main agricultural, biotechnological, and post-harvest strategies for reducing cadmium (Cd) concentrations in the cultivation and processing of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.), one of Latin America's most representative products, are reviewed. The study, focusing on Ecuador and other countries that produce fine aroma cocoa, evaluates techniques such as microbial bioremediation, phytoremediation with...
The 1% increase in global GDP from closing the gender gap in agricultural productivity and wages would reduce food insecurity by 2%, benefiting 45 million people.
98 million more people were food insecure in 2020 vs. 1981-2010, due to rainfall variability and the impact on freshwater (Cerrudo, 2024).
300 billion per year until 2030 is the estimated cost of transforming agrifood systems and eradicating global hunger and malnutrition (ECLAC et al., 2024).
6.4% of the GDP of LAC countries is estimated as the average cost of malnutrition problems, ranging from malnutrition to overweight and obesity (ECLAC. et al, 2024).
43.2 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have sufficient access to food, in a context worsened by climate impacts associated with the El Niño phenomenon. (WFP, 2024)
