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Read the
magazine
story to find out more. Consortium
Kicks Off Tech Exchange in American TropicsBy Rosalie Marion Bliss February 25, 2002The first Henry A. Wallace
Conference Series, cosponsored by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and the Tropical Agricultural Research and
Higher Education Center (CATIE), will convene today in Turrialba, Costa
Rica, and continue through February 27. One hundred international scientists
and policymakers from the public and private sectors will attend to discuss
technical innovations for advancing agriculture in North, Central and South
America. CATIE plays an important role in education, training, extension and research
activities in Latin America, according to Charles A. Onstad of USDAs
Agricultural Research Service. Onstad is
scheduled to give welcoming remarks at the conference. Based in College
Station, Texas, he is director of ARS' Southern Plains Area. Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, who favors biotechnology solutions to the
worlds food shortages, is slated to give the keynote address. Other
speakers include ARS national program leaders and directors from an
international network of agricultural centers operated by the
Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Key issues will center around value-added production and management
practices for coffee farms. Coffee is an important crop to Latin American
farmers and to U.S. consumers, the largest purchasers of coffee in the world.
Coffee prices have been declining, however. So farming strategies to counteract
the drop in prices will be explored--particularly diversification with
compatible, profitable crops. For example, coffee can be grown on the same farm
as high-value timber and tropical fruits. CATIE cooperates with researchers at the
ARS Subtropical Horticulture
Research Unit in Miami, Fla., the American Cocoa Research Institute,
and M&M Mars, Inc., to initiate
technical strategies for developing the cacao plants resistance to fungal
diseases. Naturally, growers want varieties with disease-resistance, high-yield
traits. Tropical agricultures cacao product is key to the U.S. chocolate
industry. CATIE maintains a large germplasm collection of coffee, cacao, tropical
fruit and horticultural crop plants. In addition to collaborations with CATIE,
ARS cooperates with research centers in Brazil, Trinidad and Ecuador. A more detailed story of ARS cooperation with CATIE is in the
February issue ofAgricultural Research magazine, on the World Wide Web at: ARS is USDAs chief scientific research agency. Story contacts Rosalie Bliss U.S. Department of Agriculture |