Semillero de Ideas centers farmworkers as the leaders of innovation in agriculture.
We create safe spaces for farmworkers to share their knowledge, experience and insights about how to address issues from workplace challenges to climate change.
“We’re almost never listened to, or rather, we don’t encourage each other to share or improve our ideas…Semillero de Ideas is giving us that opportunity to be heard.”
– Luis Alejandro Barrera, Semillero de Ideas Innovation Challenge winner (right)
Semillero collaborates with organizations, industry partners, and local governments interested in addressing climate change, fostering innovation, and advancing sustainable production processes.
Recent Activities
August 27 2026
Following the results of our climate change survey, we are leading a series of workshops for workers to develop solutions to the problems they face as a result of extreme heat, smoke, access to water, and more.
This workshop focused on developing low-fidelity prototypes to build fabrication skills and enable workers to communicate their ideas more easily.
We were surrounded by an environment of creativity, teamwork, and lots of energy. Participants took on the challenge of the day: bringing their ideas from their minds into reality by building their first cardboard prototypes.
August 19 2026
Great transformations in the agricultural field start with minds like Alexis’s. Alexis works in apples and he developed a prototype that reduces injuries for workers who thin apples. This increases productivity, efficiency, and yield because he can work at a more consistent rate, work for longer without pain, and focus on making the choices about which apples to thin and which ones to leave.
He is one of our innovators, and just like you, one day he had an idea to improve processes in the field and make the work more efficient.
Do you also have an idea or improvement in mind for an agricultural tool or process?
Learn about how farmworkers are co-creating with university students
Challenges
We know that farm workers are and always will be the experts in farm work.
To encourage their creativity, we have designed activities where farm workers can develop their ideas about their work in the fields and have a voice in how working conditions can be improved using those ideas. In recent years, we have held an Innovation Challenge called Your Ideas Count.
How we do it
Semillero collaborates with organizations, industry partners, and local governments interested in addressing climate change, fostering innovation, and advancing sustainable production processes.
Our story
At Semillero de Ideas, we were founded on a simple yet powerful truth: Farmworkers hold the key to innovative solutions for the future of agriculture.
Our journey began with our co-founder, Josefina Luciano, an experienced farmworker and innovator.
News and publications
Our initiatives and the voices of agricultural workers have been featured in major publications and media outlets.
