Central and South America are areas that, for the most part,
should not have to suffer from insufficient nutrition. Much of the
region lies within the sort of climatic zone that should enable
its farmers to produce enough, not only to feed their own country,
but to provide strong agricultural exports as well. However a
brief glance at data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations shows that in 2002, on average, 15 percent of
the national population of countries in the region suffered from a
lack of nutrition.


While this figure is not as dire as it is in some countries in
Africa and Asia, it still represents a major blow to those
countries' capability to develop. A hungry man or woman,
obviously, is not efficient or energetic. The quest for food takes
all of a person's time and productivity, leaving no time for the
kind of work that will actually help a country climb into the
black. When 15 percent of a population is feeling weak, the
chances that that country will be rise out of poverty are
drastically reduced.

For this reason, in 1942, the Escuela Agricola Panamericana,
nicknamed Zamorano University, was registered in Honduras, with
the express purpose of training future leaders in the agricultural
field. Its work has not been limited to Honduras; students come
from all over Central and South America to study there. And though
no such data exists, it may be inferred that such programs have
played a major role in aiding the agricultural security of the
region. Though, as mentioned, an average of 15 percent of people
still go hungry, this number is a major improvement over the
period from 1969-70, when it stood at around 24.

However, though the program may be beneficial to a region still
struggling to get out from under the weight of poverty and hunger,
those very problems continue to prevent capable young people from
attending. Financial barriers, at both the personal and national
level, bar the doors to many young people. These same problems
force many more to quit partway through school. Though the school
was established to address a regional problem at its root, for
some the problem itself is preventing the solution from being
enacted.


Thus, in 2003, The Nippon Foundation began a scholarship at
Zamorano University, with the aim of enabling some of these young
people to achieve the education needed to change their community's
future.

Over 5 years, roughly 100 students from countries in the region
are receiving funding under the Ryoichi Sasakawa/Norman Borlaug
Scholarship, to enable them to attend Zamorano for the full four
years. Countries that are currently being reached are: Bolivia,
Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. The basic requisites for
admission to the program include both a demonstrable financial
need, and a desire to, after graduation, return to the home
country to work for its agricultural development. Under the
program, students receive four years of tuition. Freshmen also
receive a computer to help them with their work.

And what has the program produced? Well, since the first year of
students has yet to graduate, it is much too early to tell.
However, the school's track-record, combined with the fire that
the scholarship recipients have exhibited, bode extremely well for
the further development of Central and South Americas agricultural
development.


The Nippon Foundation is proud to be able to aid Escuela Agricola
Panamericana to make good on its slogan: "Zamorano Grows Leaders!"


Writer: James Huffman