The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has launched AgriSTEAM, a groundbreaking educational program aimed at equipping young people in the Eastern Caribbean with advanced digital skills to transform the agri-food industry. This free, self-paced online initiative is designed to bridge the digital divide, particularly for youth and women in rural communities, who are essential to the region’s food security but often face limited access to technology and education.
Gregg Rawlins, IICA’s representative for the Eastern Caribbean, emphasized the program’s importance, stating, ‘AgriSTEAM is a vital tool in our mission to empower youth and drive digital innovation in agriculture. By focusing on digitization, we aim to engage young people in addressing critical challenges like population growth, climate change, and inequality.’
The 25-week program features five comprehensive courses: Introduction to Digital Transformation in the Agri-Food Sector, Programming Logic, Sensing and IoT Applications, Geoinformatics, and Data Analysis with Python. Participants gain hands-on experience with tools such as Tinkercad, QGIS, Copernicus Open Access Hub, and Python. Upon completion, learners receive digital badges and an official IICA certificate.
Andres Sanchez, IICA’s Digital Agriculture Specialist, highlighted the initiative’s broader goals: ‘AgriSTEAM is designed to reduce the digital divide and empower youth to lead sustainable transformations in food production systems across Latin America and the Caribbean.’
Interested individuals can enroll now at [https://seed.iica.int/course/view.php?id=137](https://seed.iica.int/course/view.php?id=137).