Creating Agricultural Leaders -- Zamorano University
David Tharp
The Nippon Foundation
The Nippon Foundation
Indepth Articles
[Oct. 09, 2008]
Zamorano University is based in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the heart of Central America. In Spanish it is called the Escuela Agricola Panamericana (Agricultural School of Panamerica), and was initially established in order to train agricultural leaders throughout Central and South America.
However, due to the difficult economic situation in these developing nations, many young people could no longer afford to study at the university, so The Nippon Foundation stepped forward to establish a four-year scholarship program there to support deserving students. This enables the school to reach more deeply into the societies that it hopes to empower.
The Escuela Agrícola Panamericana Zamorano was established in 1941, to nurture agricultural leaders from 18 Latin American nations. In keeping with its interest in helping to create food security for the developing world, Zamorano is a private, not-for-profit international university. The school offers intensive four-year academic programs in four professional career paths associated with the agro-food chain. The school's other major priority is to nuture the active participation of students in the socio-economic development of the rural areas of the region through applied research programs and sustainable development projects.
Zamorano has a faculty of approximately 70 professionals,
many of whom have the highest degree obtainable in their respective fields, and there are over 900 students from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
The university has set up a practical learning-as-you-study program (University Enterprises Unit) for students to get first hand experience in the full chain of food production. The activity of University Enterprises revolves around two basic components: technical and business. In this regard, the University Enterprises are a practical laboratory where the student learns the best production, processing, marketing and integral management practices of an agricultural business.
This program is an integral part of the student training and demands half-time dedication. The University Enterprises Unit provides the physical resources, and creates the actual corporate and business environment where the students develop the abilities, skills and deductive knowledge that prepare them for their professional lives. Here, they learn how to apply classroom knowledge to the real world, and in doing so improve their learning process.
University enterprises are grouped into three main areas: Agricultural Production, Livestock Production and Processing Plants. There is also a Marketing and Sales unit where the students participate actively with clients and the market. The agricultural area includes Horticulture, Fruticulture, Forestry and Grains and Seeds. The livestock production area includes milk cattle, beef cattle and swine units and an Agricultural and Irrigation Machinery support unit.
The processing plants group includes dairy, meat, animal feed and seeds, horticulture and wood processing plants. Each business unit follows an agricultural and agroindustrial business plan, an operating and capital budget, and is run as a business, with financial and educational goals.
In 2002, The Nippon Foundation established the need-based scholarship program at the university, and following graduation, a number of these scholars underwent internships in foreign countries such as Laos and Ethiopia, as part of their training program.
These overseas internships were run by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which focuses on the use of the cassava plant in such diverse capacities as a livestock feed to replace corn, as a natural adhesive, and as the base component of biodegradable plastics. During their time in overseas projects, students teach such points as the planting of cassava and making feed for pigs, which helps sustain local communities and creates a source of income.