On December 4, following completion of post-graduation internships in Laos, two graduates of the Nippon Foundation scholarship program at the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School in Honduras visited the Nippon Foundation. The program works to develop a cadre of agricultural leaders in Central and South America, and on their return to their home countries, the two will begin working, respectively, at a farm and at a chemical fertilizer company.

Carlos Omar

The two students are Carlos Omar (25) from Peru and Alejandro Vega (23) from Panama. Starting in 2004, they studied for four years under the scholarship program at the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, which is said to be the best of its kind in Central and South America. After graduating last December, they underwent a nine-month internship program, together with researchers from various countries at an experimental farm in the Laotian province of Luang Prabang. During an informal visit with Chairman Sasakawa, this December, they spoke of their broad range of experiences, including the differing customs and conventions of Southeast Asia and Central and South America. Both described the program as a wonderful experience.

Alejandro Vega

The topics of their research involved not just food and livestock feed, but a project to promote cassava, which is attracting growing attention as a raw material for use in biofuels. Also common in Central and South America, cassava is remarkably cheap in Laos, where it is processed and used in many ways. “While cassava is eaten widely in Panama at breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” remarked Vega, “it’s mostly fried. We import the powder. Research in this area will generate new possibilities for Panama.” According to Omar, “Since potatoes originated, and are still produced in Peru, cassava is seen as a rival crop. But the country needs to study other methods for using cassava, as a response to rising potato prices.”

A commemorative photograph with interpreter Akira Uchimura (right)

After attending agricultural schools at both the junior high and high school levels, Omar decided that Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School was his first choice of university. After praising Japan for its return to prosperity after World War II and as an outstanding nation in advanced information technologies, the two graduates noted the central role of the scholarship program in their continuing studies, calling for similar support in other nations.

The program is named after Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who worked on the Green Revolution project to increase food production in Africa. Through the 2008 fiscal year, this 10-year program has graduated 129 students from 12 Central and South American nations. When it wraps up in two years, hopes are that the network of scholarship recipients will demonstrate their considerable skills in developing agriculture in the region.