International Activities
- Mexico: In 2004, the College of Agricultural Sciences established a formal relationship with the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, with the objectives of rebuilding Extension in the State of Guanajuato. On December 1, 2004, The Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO), in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Mexico, awarded a grant under the U.S.-Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES) Initiative to The Pennsylvania State University/Universidad de Guanajuato. The ALO support allows both universities to train Mexican graduate students in extension and applied research on the application of plasticulture techniques to boost rural incomes and protect the rural environment. The Department of Horticulture has hosted 5 Mexican graduate students during the past two years and they have returned to Mexico to complete their degrees. In May 2007, Dr. Manuel Collado, Dean of the Agricultural Science Institute, along with a group of five Mexican agricultural researchers visited Penn State for three days to explore areas of common interest for future research. Grant proposals will be submitted to allow cooperative research, faculty exchanges, and training of graduate students.
- China: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of a relationship between South China Agricultural University and Penn State University, Dr. Luo Shiming, former president of South China Agricultural University was the speaker at this year’s College commencement. Dr. Shiming spent two days in University Park to strengthen ties between the two universities. The Department of Horticulture has a relationship with the University and has trained several Chinese graduate students. President Spanier and President Chen of SCAU signed an agreement for further collaboration and inaugurated the joint lab of root biology. This will allow Chinese graduate students and faculty members to perform research at Penn State and to facilitate exchanges for graduate students and faculty members.
- Puerto Rico: In April a group of department heads joined Dr. Marcos Fernandez, Associate Dean for Undergraduate studies, on a visit to the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPR-M) to sign a memorandum of understanding to facilitate exchanges and cooperative initiatives between the two universities in the area of teaching, research, and outreach. The Department of Horticulture has already participated in this program by hosting undergraduate students from UPR-M for a summer research experience. Hopefully some of these students will return as graduate students. The UPR-M is a Land Grant University and other opportunities for cooperative research and undergraduate teaching are being explored.
- Italy: From May 1 to June 7, 2007, Dave Eissenstat, Professor of Woody Plant Physiology, and his wife, Brenda, lived in Bologna, Italy on a mini-sabbatical”. David was awarded a fellowship from the University of Bologna, Institute for Advanced Studies that provided support for travel and housing. Dave worked on root biology in apple and peach at the Faculty of Agriculture with Professor Massimo Tagliavini, an expert in tree fruit nutrition who also works in orchard ecosystem ecology. The Department of Fruit Tree and Woody Plant Sciences has one of the strongest fruit programs in the world, partly because of their excellent regional support. The Emila-Romagna region of Italy is extremely fertile and a center for production of kiwi, peaches, nectarines, grapes, pears, sweet cherries and apples. Farms tend to be small, family owned and run, and planted with multiple crops so that the work load can be spread out over the seasons. This pattern of production also spreads out the risks due to weather (especially hail in the spring) and price fluctuations. They also visited the Bolzano region, which is near Austria and has a strong German influence. Most of the farmers in the region speak German as their first language. This region is a key apple-growing area in Europe. The research station in Bolzano was extremely well equipped and great source of pride for the local politicians.
- Training the Next Generation of Extension Educators in Guanajuato: Technology Applications for Production Agriculture (TAPA)
By: Bill Lamont, Professor of Vegetable Crops
The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Guanajuato, in collaboration with the Centro de Investigacion en Quimica Aplicada, are involved in a three year project to increase the production of locally produced horticultural crops by small growers in Mexico. The project takes a three-pronged approach to this goal by providing formal training, research collaboration and an outreach program to assist the Mexicans in reaching the small farmers with the latest information on the use of plastics in the production of horticultural crops.
Prior to the fall semester 2005, two Mexican graduate students, Sandra Flores-Mejia and Efrain Calderon Reyes from the University of Guanajuato arrived at Penn State for one year. In January 2006, three more students Esteban Rico Jaramillo, Cesar de Leon Guitierrez, and Gustavo Garcia Rodriquez arrived from University of Guanajuato for one year of training. The students have been taking courses in the Department of Horticulture, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Department of
Agricultural Economics, Department of Entomology, Department of Plant Pathology and Department of Agricultural Education and Extension.
In addition to their course work they are learning how to conduct applied research at The Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Plasticulture and High Tunnel Research and Education Center. They have also been involved in marketing of horticultural products from the farm at the Department of Horticulture’s retail outlet “The Cellar Market”. The students have their own research project titled “Influence of Different Color Plastic Mulches on the Growth and Yield of Tomatoes and Peppers” which provides “hands-on” training on how to design an experiment, plant it, maintain it, collect data, analyze data and write up the results from the experiment.
(Picture: (From L to R) Cesar de Leon Guitierrez, Dr. Luis Ibarra, Efrain Calderon
Reyes, Emily Cook, HORT, M.S. candidate, Esteban Rico Jaramillo, and Sandra Flores-Mejia)
The students have been actively involved in all the research projects at the Horticulture Research Farm, learning about the latest plasticulture technology. Also a Mexican researcher, Dr. Luis Ibarra from the Centro de Investigacion en Quimica Aplicada, Satillo, Mexico, spent three weeks at Penn State learning about what our faculty are doing in the field of plasticulture, and also sharing his research experiences on the use of plasticulture with the students and Penn State researchers.
The students have been actively involved in field days, workshops, on-farm visits, short courses, winter commodity meetings both in Pennsylvania and outside in New Hampshire, and Ohio. In the future, the students assisted by faculty from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Guanajuato will conduct outreach/demonstration programs on the farms of producers in Guanajuato, Mexico training the farmers on how to utilize plasticulture technology.
Mike Orzolek, Professor of Vegetable Crops and Elsa Sanchez, Assistant Professor of Horticulture Systems in the department will visit the University of Guanajuato in November and work with Sandra Flores-Mejia and Efrain Calderon Reyes in reaching out to the small growers with the latest plasticulture technology.
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