With an agtech cluster, Río Cuarto emerges as a biotech capital

Llaryora launched the cluster, which will focus on technology-based agriculture.

It will connect the work of government, academia and the private sector to boost agro-bioindustrial production in the region.

Governor Martín Llaryora led the launch of the Cluster Agtech in Río Cuarto, an ambitious project that brings together the province, private companies and academia to promote agro-bioindustrial development and make the region a Latin American and global benchmark in the field.

The cluster aims to become the epicenter of agtech development, reaching beyond southern Córdoba to the entire Pampa Húmeda.

With that in mind, 20 organizations from the public, private and academic sectors have joined the project.

At the launch, held at the Bio 4 plant, Llaryora said the cluster will be key to boosting the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, with a strong commitment to technology adoption and innovation.

Llaryora stressed that Río Cuarto and the region "are destined to be one of the world's great biotechnology capitals." He added that the life sciences are currently driving a revolution that is transforming production.

Along these lines, the governor said companies in the sector will become "the new unicorns in a couple of years". To support this momentum, he stressed that "as a government, we will be supporting Río Cuarto and the south of the province, just as we did with software and with other clusters."

"If we all pull together, business leaders, municipal and provincial governments and universities, Córdoba has everything it takes to be a global powerhouse in biotechnology and agricultural technology", he added.

Along the same lines, a few months ago the provincial government moved the headquarters of the Agencia de Innovación y Emprendimiento to Río Cuarto.

The Agencia Competitividad is also focusing efforts on the region to increase value added.

Audio: Martín Llaryora.

Who's involved

The public sector, including the Agencia Competitividad and other government bodies, accounts for 30% of the cluster; academia, with public and private institutions, for 10%; and the private sector, with agricultural and technology companies, for the remaining 60%.

The members are Bioetanol Río Cuarto SA (Bio4), Agro Medanos SA, R4 Ventures SA (Pampa Start VC), Hendercross Global SA, Teknal SA, Intercity Comunicaciones SA, Futit Services SRL, Federico Boehler, BULI Agropecuaria SA, Tingonbu SA, Agro Agility SA, Hub4 Asociación Civil, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Sociedad Rural de Río Cuarto, the Municipality of Río Cuarto, Fundación para el Desarrollo Local y Regional, Fundación Agropecuaria para el Desarrollo de Argentina (Fada), Universidad Siglo 21, INTA, Red de Innovación Local and the Agencia Competitividad Córdoba.

The Agency covers 50% of the fees of the cluster manager (the person who coordinates the project) and of the support for its implementation.

What is agtech?

Agtech is short for agricultural technology. It refers to the agricultural technology industry and includes all ventures that use a wide range of new technologies to increase the industry's productivity, efficiency and profitability.

Río Cuarto is a hub of high-value agro-bioindustrial development within the so-called core zone, Argentina's prime farming region. The cluster's job is to scale up all of that existing capacity.

In fact, Río Cuarto has the essential features of a cluster: besides being a regional technology and science hub, its players are geographically concentrated, interconnected and part of the same value chain or of several related ones, such as agricultural machinery, genetic research, software development and herbicides.

From Río Cuarto to the world

The cluster aims to become the epicenter of agtech development.

It is also part of a global movement to optimize agricultural management and production, which calls for agricultural innovation and the use of technology in the sector as a way to fight poverty, meet growing food demand and address the effects of climate change.

The governor was joined by Río Cuarto Mayor Juan Manuel Llamosas; Minister of Economy and Public Management Guillermo Acosta, in his role as head of the Agencia de Competitividad Córdoba (AC); Federico Cola, president of the cluster; and Rafael Ibáñez, the cluster's first vice president.