Ricardo Labarta

Most international organizations are past the stage of asking whether to use AI and in the harder phase of identifying the best use cases. A 2025 study of over 2,500 humanitarian practitioners found that 70% of the respondents integrated AI into daily or weekly workflows, but less than half agreed it has improved organizational efficiency. Also, 4 out of 5 surveyed organizations at the time had no AI policies in place.

Introduction Rice productivity in Latin America has shown a considerable increase over recent decades. However, these productivity gains have not been homogeneous across the rice-producing countries in the region. As of 2018, countries such as Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, and Brazil's southern region, had achieved rice yields between 6.3 and 8.5 t/ha, whereas countries such as Bolivia and Panama remained at production rates below 4 t/ha.

It is widely recognized that increasing agricultural production to the levels needed to feed an expanding world population requires sharply increased public investment in research and development and widespread adoption of new technologies, but funding for national and international agricultural research has rather declined in recent years.