Seven ICA officials, together with representatives of INVIMA and UPRA, completed the first year of the CIAT course on agricultural traceability in Seoul. The initiative, managed with KOICA, will run until 2028 and will incorporate artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
Bogotá, November 13, 2026. Traceability is a fundamental tool for knowing the journey of agricultural products, from their origin to the consumer. That is why Colombia is moving forward in strengthening its institutional and technological capacities in this area, through CIAT's training course program with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Seven officials from the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA), together with representatives of the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (INVIMA) and the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA), took part in the first year of training of the CIAT Course "Strengthening capacities in traceability systems for agricultural and livestock products in Colombia for national and international competitiveness (2026-2028)", held in Seoul, South Korea.
ICA's participation was key in this exchange, given that the institute is responsible for administering the national traceability system. During the process, officials from different areas of the Institute —including Animal Protection, Plant Protection, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Regulation, International Affairs and Livestock Epidemiological Surveillance— worked on building a proposal for an institutional action plan aimed at strengthening the current traceability processes that the Institute uses as a tool for sanitary management and the opening of international markets.
The academic and technical agenda provided first-hand insight into South Korea's experience in managing information on food production and distribution. Through lectures, working sessions and technical visits, participants toured agricultural cooperatives, poultry processing plants, agricultural and fishery product distribution centers, laboratories, peer government agencies, smart production systems and a genetic bank of native cattle.
They also learned about experiences related to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), product tracking systems, cattle history management and quality and hygiene control models, such as the HACCP system.
Marcela Polanco Galván, a veterinarian and animal scientist at ICA's Valle del Cauca branch, highlighted that "this international cooperation experience represents an opportunity to strengthen Colombia's agricultural traceability systems. The knowledge acquired will allow us to identify opportunities for improvement in the technological tools currently in place, reinforcing interinstitutional work with organizations relevant to the production chain such as UPRA and INVIMA, so that the common goal is to strengthen the country's traceability system across the entire production chain, with the purpose of providing greater guarantees to producers and contributing to the competitiveness of our products in national and international markets".
This exchange makes it possible to analyze Colombia's conditions and needs, identify lessons applicable to the national context and move forward on a roadmap that contributes to strengthening agricultural traceability systems. The aim is to have better technical and management capacities to support institutional decision-making and the sustainability of these processes.
The initiative, managed by UPRA through its agreement with KOICA, will run for three years. For 2027, it envisages capacity building in the design and implementation of traceability systems through digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT). In 2028, the consolidation of a policy model and new cooperation proposals adapted to the country's conditions are planned.
As part of the commitments made, ICA will promote the dissemination and sharing of the knowledge obtained, with the purpose of sharing the lessons learned among its work teams and ensuring continuity for the actions planned in the project.
With this participation, the Institute reaffirms its commitment to developing tools that contribute to agricultural health, transparency in production processes and the competitiveness of the Colombian countryside, based on knowledge, innovation and interinstitutional and international cooperation.
